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diff --git a/18914.txt b/18914.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5fb677b --- /dev/null +++ b/18914.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9304 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 20, No. 117, +July, 1867., by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 20, No. 117, July, 1867. + +Author: Various + +Release Date: July 26, 2006 [EBook #18914] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY *** + + + + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by Cornell University Digital Collections) + + + + + + + + + + + + +THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + + +A MAGAZINE OF + +_Literature, Science, Art, and Politics._ + +VOLUME XX. + +[Illustration] + +BOSTON: TICKNOR AND FIELDS, 124 TREMONT STREET. + +1867. + + +Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by + +TICKNOR AND FIELDS, + +in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of +Massachusetts. + +UNIVERSITY PRESS: WELCH, BIGELOW, & CO., CAMBRIDGE. + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's note: Minor typos have been corrected. Footnotes have been +moved to the end of the article. + + * * * * * + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + Page + +Artist's Dream, An _T. W. Higginson_ 100 + +Autobiography of a Quack, The. I., II. 466, 586 + +Bornoo, A Native of 485 + +Bowery at Night, The _Charles Dawson Shanly_ 602 + +By-Ways of Europe. From Perpignan to Montserrat. + _Bayard Taylor_ 495 + + " " A Visit to the Balearic Islands. I. + _Bayard Taylor_ 680 + +Busy Brains _Austin Abbott_ 570 + +Canadian Woods and Waters _Charles Dawson Shanly_ 311 + +Cincinnati _James Parton_ 229 + +Conspiracy at Washington, The 633 + +Cretan Days _Wm. J. Stillman_ 533 + +Dinner Speaking _Edward Everett Hale_ 507 + +Doctor Molke _Dr. I. I. Hayes_ 43 + +Edisto, Up the _T. W. Higginson_ 157 + +Foster, Stephen C., and Negro Minstrelsy + _Robert P. Nevin_ 608 + +Fugitives from Labor _F. Sheldon_ 370 + +Grandmother's Story: The Great Snow 716 + +Gray Goth, In the _Miss E. Stuart Phelps_ 559 + +Great Public Character, A _James Russell Lowell_ 618 + +Growth, Limitations, and Toleration of Shakespeare's Genius + _E. P. Whipple_ 178 + +Guardian Angel, The. VII., VIII., IX., X., XI., XII. + _Oliver Wendell Holmes_ 1, 129, 257, 385, 513, 641 + +Hospital Memories. I., II. + _Miss Eudora Clark_ 144, 324 + +International Copyright _James Parton_ 430 + +Jesuits in North America, The _George E. Ellis_ 362 + +Jonson, Ben _E. P. Whipple_ 403 + +Longfellow's Translation of Dante's Divina Commedia 188 + +Liliput Province, A _W. Winwood Reade_ 247 + +Literature as an Art _T. W. Higginson_ 745 + +Little Land of Appenzell, The _Bayard Taylor_ 213 + +Minor Elizabethan Dramatists _E. P. Whipple_ 692 + +Minor Italian Travels _W. D. Howells_ 337 + +Mysterious Personage, A _John Neal_ 658 + +Opinions of the late Dr. Nott, respecting Books, Studies and Orators + _E. D. Sanborn_ 527 + +Pacific Railroads, Our _J. K. Medbery_ 704 + +Padua, At _W. D. Howells_ 25 + +Passage from Hawthorne's English Note-Books, A 15 + +Piano in the United States, The _James Parton_ 82 + +Poor Richard. II., III. _Henry James, Jr._ 32, 166 + +Prophetic Voices about America. A Monograph + _Charles Sumner_ 275 + +Religious Side of the Italian Question, The + _Joseph Mazzini_ 108 + +Rose Rollins, The. I., II. _Alice Cary_ 420, 545 + +Sunshine and Petrarch _T. W. Higginson_ 307 + +Struggle for Life, A _T. B. Aldrich_ 56 + +"The Lie" _C. J. Sprague_ 598 + +Throne of the Golden Foot, The _J. W. Palmer_ 453 + +T. Adolphus Trollope, Writings of + _H. T. Tuckerman_ 476 + +Tour in the Dark, A 670 + +Uncharitableness 415 + +Visit to Sybaris, My _Edward Everett Hale_ 63 + +Week's Riding, A 200 + +What we Feel _C. J. Sprague_ 740 + +Wife by Wager, A _E. H. House_ 350 + +Workers in Silver, Among the _James Parton_ 729 + +Young Desperado, A _T. B. Aldrich_ 755 + + +POETRY. + +Are the Children at Home? _Mrs. M. E. M. Sangster_ 557 + +Autumn Song, An _Edgar Fawcett_ 679 + +Blue and the Gray, The _F. M. Finch_ 369 + +Chanson without Music _Oliver Wendell Holmes_ 543 + +Dirge for a Sailor _George H. Boker_ 157 + +Ember-Picture, An _James Russell Lowell_ 99 + +Feast of Harvest, The _E. C. Stedman_ 616 + +Flight of the Goddess, The _T. B. Aldrich_ 452 + +Freedom in Brazil _John G. Whittier_ 62 + +Lost Genius, The _J. J. Piatt_ 228 + +Mona's Mother _Alice Cary_ 22 + +Mystery of Nature, The _Theodore Tilton_ 349 + +Nightingale in the Study, The + _James Russell Lowell_ 323 + +Sonnet _George H. Boker_ 744 + +Themistocles _William Everett_ 398 + +The Old Story _Alice Cary_ 199 + +Toujours Amour _E. C. Stedman_ 728 + + +REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. + +Browne's Land of Thor 256 + +Charlevoix's History of New France 125 + +Codman's Ten Months in Brazil 383 + +Cozzens's Sayings of Doctor Bushwhacker + and other Learned Men 512 + +Critical and Social Essays, from the New York "Nation" 384 + +Dall's (Mrs.) The College, the Market, and the Court 255 + +Du Chaillu's Journey to Ashango-Land 122 + +Emerson's May-Day and Other Pieces 376 + +Half-Tints 256 + +Holland's Kathrina 762 + +Hoppin's Old England 127 + +Hymns by Harriet McEwen Kimball 128 + +Jean Ingelow's Story of Doom, and other Poems 383 + +Lea's Historical Sketch of Sacerdotal Celibacy + in the Christian Church 378 + +Literary Life of James K. Paulding, The 124 + +Memoirs and Correspondence of Madame Recamier 127 + +Miss Ravenel's Conversion from Secession to Loyalty 120 + +Morris's Life and Death of Jason 640 + +Morse on the Poem "Rock me to Sleep, Mother" 252 + +Norton's Translation of The New Life of Dante 638 + +Parsons's Deus Homo 512 + +Parsons's Translation of the Inferno 759 + +Paulding's The Bulls and the Jonathans 639 + +Purnell's Literature and its Professors 254 + +Richmond during the War 762 + +Ritter's Comparative Geography of Palestine 125 + +Samuels's Ornithology and Ooelogy of New England 761 + +Thackeray's Early and Late Papers 252 + +Tomes's Champagne Country 511 + +Webb's Liffith Lank, or Lunacy, and St. Twel'mo 123 + + + + +THE + +ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +_A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics._ + +VOL. XX.--JULY, 1867.--NO. CXVII. + +Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by TICKNOR AND +FIELDS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of +Massachusetts. + + + + +THE GUARDIAN ANGEL. + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +SUSAN'S YOUNG MAN. + +There seems no reasonable doubt that Myrtle Hazard might have made a +safe thing of it with Gifted Hopkins, (if so inclined,) provided that +she had only been secured against interference. But the constant habit +of reading his verses to Susan Posey was not without its risk to so +excitable a nature as that of the young poet. Poets always were capable +of divided affections, and Cowley's "Chronicle" is a confession that +would fit the whole tribe of them. It is true that Gifted had no right +to regard Susan's heart as open to the wiles of any new-comer. He knew +that she considered herself, and was considered by another, as pledged +and plighted. Yet she was such a devoted listener, her sympathies were +so easily roused, her blue eyes glistened so tenderly at the least +poetical hint, such as "Never, O never," "My aching heart," "Go, let me +weep,"--any of those touching phrases out of the long catalogue which +readily suggests itself,--that her influence was getting to be such that +Myrtle (if really anxious to secure him) might look upon it with +apprehension, and the owner of Susan's heart (if of a jealous +disposition) might have thought it worth while to make a visit to Oxbow +Village to see after his property. + +It may seem not impossible that some friend had suggested as much as +this to the young lady's lover. The caution would have been unnecessary, +or at least premature. Susan was loyal as ever to her absent friend. +Gifted Hopkins had never yet presumed upon the familiar relations +existing between them to attempt to shake her allegiance. It is quite as +likely, after all, that the young gentleman about to make his appearance +in Oxbow Village visited the place of his own accord, without a hint +from anybody. But the fact concerns us more than the reason of it, just +now. + +"Who do you think is coming, Mr. Gridley? Who _do_ you think is coming?" +said Susan Posey, her face covered with a carnation such as the first +season may see in a city belle, but not the second. + +"Well, Susan Posey, I suppose I must guess, though I am rather slow at +that business. Perhaps the Governor. No, I don't think it can be the +Governor, for you wouldn't look so happy if it was only his Excellency. +It must be the President, Susan Posey,--President James Buchanan. +Haven't I guessed right, now, tell me, my dear?" + +"O Mr. Gridley, you are too bad,--what do I care for governors and +presidents? I know somebody that's worth fifty million thousand +presidents,--and _he_'s coming,--my Clement is coming," said Susan, who +had by this time learned to consider the awful Byles Gridley as her next +friend and faithful counsellor. + +Susan could not stay long in the house after she got her note informing +her that her friend was soon to be with her. Everybody told everything +to Olive Eveleth, and Susan must run over to the Parsonage to tell her +that there was a young gentleman coming to Oxbow Village; upon which +Olive asked who it was, exactly as if she did not know; whereupon Susan +dropped her eyes and said, "Clement,--I mean Mr. Lindsay." + +That was a fair piece of news now, and Olive had her bonnet on five +minutes after Susan was gone, and was on her way to Bathsheba's,--it was +too bad that the poor girl who lived so out of the world shouldn't know +anything of what was going on in it. Bathsheba had been in all the +morning, and the Doctor had said she must take the air every day; so +Bathsheba had on _her_ bonnet a little after Olive had gone, and walked +straight up to The Poplars to tell Myrtle Hazard that a certain young +gentleman, Clement Lindsay, was coming to Oxbow Village. + +It was perhaps fortunate that there was no special significance to +Myrtle in the name of Clement Lindsay. Since the adventure which had +brought these two young persons together, and, after coming so near a +disaster, had ended in a mere humiliation and disappointment, and but +for Master Gridley's discreet kindness might have led to foolish +scandal, Myrtle had never referred to it in any way. Nobody really knew +what her plans had been except Olive and Cyprian, who had observed a +very kind silence about the whole matter. The common version of the +story was harmless, and near enough to the truth,--down the river,--boat +upset,--pulled out,--taken care of by some women in a house farther +down,--sick, brain fever,--pretty near it, anyhow,--old Dr. Hurlbut +called in,--had her hair cut,--hystericky, etc., etc. + +Myrtle was contented with this statement, and asked no questions, and it +was a perfectly understood thing that nobody alluded to the subject in +her presence. It followed from all this that the name of Clement Lindsay +had no peculiar meaning for her. Nor was she like to recognize him as +the youth in whose company she had gone through her mortal peril, for +all her recollections were confused and dream-like from the moment when +she awoke and found herself in the foaming rapids just above the fall, +until that when her senses returned, and she saw Master Byles Gridley +standing over her with that look of tenderness in his square features +which had lingered in her recollection, and made her feel towards him as +if she were his daughter. + +Now this had its advantage; for as Clement was Susan's young man, and +had been so for two or three years, it would have been a great pity to +have any such curious relations established between him and Myrtle +Hazard as a consciousness on both sides of what had happened would +naturally suggest. + +"Who is this Clement Lindsay, Bathsheba?" Myrtle asked. + +"Why, Myrtle, don't you remember about Susan Posey's is-to-be,--the +young man that has been--well, I don't know, but I suppose engaged to +her ever since they were children almost?" + +"Yes, yes, I remember now. O dear! I have forgotten so many things I +should think I had been dead and was coming back to life again. Do you +know anything about him, Bathsheba? Didn't somebody say he was very +handsome? I wonder if he is really in love with Susan Posey. Such a +simple thing! I want to see him. I have seen so few young men." + +As Myrtle said these words, she lifted the sleeve a little on her left +arm, by a half-instinctive and half-voluntary movement. The glimmering +gold of Judith Pride's bracelet flashed out the yellow gleam which has +been the reddening of so many hands and the blackening of so many souls +since that innocent sin-breeder was first picked up in the land of +Havilah. There came a sudden light into her eye, such as Bathsheba had +never seen there before. It looked to her as if Myrtle were saying +unconsciously to herself that she had the power of beauty, and would +like to try its influence on the handsome young man whom she was soon to +meet, even at the risk of unseating poor little Susan in his affections. +This pained the gentle and humble-minded girl, who, without having +tasted the world's pleasures, had meekly consecrated herself to the +lowly duties which lay nearest to her. For Bathsheba's phrasing of life +was in the monosyllables of a rigid faith. Her conceptions of the human +soul were all simplicity and purity, but elementary. She could not +conceive the vast license the creative energy allows itself in mingling +the instincts which, after long conflict, may come into harmonious +adjustment. The flash which Myrtle's eye had caught from the gleam of +the golden bracelet filled Bathsheba with a sudden fear that she was +like to be led away by the vanities of that world lying in wickedness of +which the minister's daughter had heard so much and seen so little. + +Not that Bathsheba made any fine moral speeches to herself. She only +felt a slight shock, such as a word or a look from one we love too often +gives us,--such as a child's trivial gesture or movement makes a parent +feel,--that impalpable something which in the slightest possible +inflection of a syllable or gradation of a tone will sometimes leave a +sting behind it, even in a trusting heart. This was all. But it was +true that what she saw meant a great deal. It meant the dawning in +Myrtle Hazard of one of her as yet unlived _secondary lives_. +Bathsheba's virgin perceptions had caught a faint early ray of its +glimmering twilight. + +She answered, after a very slight pause, which this explanation has made +seem so long, that she had never seen the young gentleman, and that she +did not know about Susan's sentiments. Only, as they had kept so long to +each other, she supposed there must be love between them. + +Myrtle fell into a revery, with certain _tableaux_ glowing along its +perspectives which poor little Susan Posey would have shivered to look +upon, if they could have been transferred from the purple clouds of +Myrtle's imagination to the pale silvery mists of Susan's pretty +fancies. She sat in her day-dream long after Bathsheba had left her, her +eyes fixed, not on the faded portrait of her beautiful ancestress, but +on that other canvas where the dead Beauty seemed to live in all the +splendors of her full-blown womanhood. + + * * * * * + +The young man whose name had set her thoughts roving _was_ handsome, as +the glance at him already given might have foreshadowed. But his +features had a graver impress than his age seemed to account for, and +the sober tone of his letter to Susan implied that something had given +him a maturity beyond his years. The story was not an uncommon one. At +sixteen he had dreamed--and told his dream. At eighteen he had awoke, +and found, as he believed, that a young heart had grown to his so that +its life was dependent on his own. Whether it would have perished if its +filaments had been gently disentangled from the object to which they had +attached themselves, experienced judges of such matters may perhaps +question. To justify Clement in his estimate of the danger of such an +experiment, we must remember that to young people in their teens a first +passion is a portentous and unprecedented phenomenon. The young man may +have been mistaken in thinking that Susan would die if he left her, and +may have done more than his duty in sacrificing himself; but if so, it +was the mistake of a generous youth, who estimated the depth of +another's feelings by his own. He measured the depth of his own rather +by what he felt they might be, than by that of any abysses they had yet +sounded. + +Clement was called a "genius" by those who knew him, and was +consequently in danger of being spoiled early. The risk is great enough +anywhere, but greatest in a new country, where there is an almost +universal want of fixed standards of excellence. + +He was by nature an artist; a shaper with the pencil or the chisel, a +planner, a contriver capable of turning his hand to almost any work of +eye and hand. It would not have been strange if he thought he could do +everything, having gifts which were capable of various application,--and +being an American citizen. But though he was a good draughtsman, and had +made some reliefs and modelled some figures, he called himself only an +architect. He had given himself up to his art, not merely from a love of +it and talent for it, but with a kind of heroic devotion, because he +thought his country wanted a race of builders to clothe the new forms of +religious, social, and national life afresh from the forest, the quarry, +and the mine. Some thought he would succeed, others that he would be a +brilliant failure. + +"Grand notions,--grand notions," the master with whom he studied said. +"Large ground plan of life,--splendid elevation. A little wild in some +of his fancies, perhaps, but he's only a boy, and he's the kind of boy +that sometimes grows to be a pretty big man. Wait and see,--wait and +see. He works days, and we can let him dream nights. There's a good deal +of him, anyhow." His fellow-students were puzzled. Those who thought of +their calling as a trade, and looked forward to the time when they +should be embodying the ideals of municipal authorities in brick and +stone, or making contracts with wealthy citizens, doubted whether +Clement would have a sharp eye enough for business. "Too many whims, you +know. All sorts of queer ideas in his head,--as if a boy like him was +going to make things all over again!" + +No doubt there was something of youthful extravagance in his plans and +expectations. But it was the untamed enthusiasm which is the source of +all great thoughts and deeds,--a beautiful delirium which age commonly +tames down, and for which the cold shower-bath the world furnishes +_gratis_ proves a pretty certain cure. + +Creation is always preceded by chaos. The youthful architect's mind was +confused by the multitude of suggestions which were crowding in upon it, +and which he had not yet had time or developed mature strength +sufficient to reduce to order. The young American of any freshness of +intellect is stimulated to dangerous excess by the conditions of life +into which he is born. There is a double proportion of oxygen in the +New-World air. The chemists have not found it out yet, but human brains +and breathing organs have long since made the discovery. + +Clement knew that his hasty entanglement had limited his possibilities +of happiness in one direction, and he felt that there was a certain +grandeur in the recompense of working out his defeated instincts through +the ambitious medium of his noble art. Had not Pharaohs chosen it to +proclaim their longings for immortality, Caesars their passion for pomp +and luxury, and the priesthood to symbolize their conceptions of the +heavenly mansions? His dreams were on a grand scale; such, after all, +are the best possessions of youth. Had he but been free, or mated with a +nature akin to his own, he would have felt himself as truly the heir of +creation as any young man that lived. But his lot was cast, and his +youth had all the serious aspect to himself of thoughtful manhood. In +the region of his art alone he hoped always to find freedom and a +companionship which his home life could never give him. + +Clement meant to have visited his beloved before he left Alderbank, but +was called unexpectedly back to the city. Happily Susan was not +exacting; she looked up to him with too great a feeling of distance +between them to dare to question his actions. Perhaps she found a +partial consolation in the company of Mr. Gifted Hopkins, who tried his +new poems on her, which was the next best thing to addressing them to +her. "Would that you were with us at this delightful season," she wrote +in the autumn; "but no, your Susan must not repine. Yet, in the +beautiful words of our native poet, + + 'O would, O would that thou wast here, + For absence makes thee doubly dear; + Ah! what is life while thou'rt away? + 'Tis night without the orb of day!'" + +The poet referred to, it need hardly be said, was our young and +promising friend G. H., as he sometimes modestly signed himself. The +letter, it is unnecessary to state, was voluminous,--for a woman can +tell her love, or other matter of interest, over and over again in as +many forms as another poet, not G. H., found for his grief in ringing +the musical changes of "In Memoriam." + +The answers to Susan's letters were kind, but not very long. They +convinced her that it was a simple impossibility that Clement could come +to Oxbow Village, on account of the great pressure of the work he had to +keep him in the city, and the plans he _must_ finish at any rate. But at +last the work was partially got rid of, and Clement was coming; yes, it +was so nice, and, O dear! shouldn't she be real happy to see him? + +To Susan he appeared as a kind of divinity,--almost too grand for human +nature's daily food. Yet, if the simple-hearted girl could have told +herself the whole truth in plain words, she would have confessed to +certain doubts which from time to time, and oftener of late, cast a +shadow on her seemingly bright future. With all the pleasure that the +thought of meeting Clement gave her, she felt a little tremor, a +certain degree of awe, in contemplating his visit. If she could have +clothed her self-humiliation in the gold and purple of the "Portuguese +Sonnets," it would have been another matter; but the trouble with the +most common sources of disquiet is that they have no wardrobe of flaming +phraseology to air themselves in; the inward burning goes on without the +relief and gratifying display of the crater. + +"A _friend_ of mine is coming to the village," she said to Mr. Gifted +Hopkins. "I want you to see him. He is a genius,--as some other young +men are." (This was obviously personal, and the youthful poet blushed +with ingenuous delight.) "I have known him for ever so many years. He +and I are _very good friends_." The poet knew that this meant an +exclusive relation between them; and though the fact was no surprise to +him, his countenance fell a little. The truth was, that his admiration +was divided between Myrtle, who seemed to him divine and adorable, but +distant, and Susan, who listened to his frequent poems, whom he was in +the habit of seeing in artless domestic costumes, and whose attractions +had been gaining upon him of late in the enforced absence of his +divinity. + +He retired pensive from this interview, and, flinging himself at his +desk, attempted wreaking his thoughts upon expression, to borrow the +language of one of his brother bards, in a passionate lyric which he +began thus:-- + + "ANOTHER'S! + + "Another's! O the pang, the smart! + Fate owes to Love a deathless grudge,-- + The barbed fang has rent a heart + Which--which-- + +"judge--judge,--no, not judge. Budge, drudge, fudge--What a disgusting +language English is! Nothing fit to couple with such a word as +grudge! And the gush of an impassioned moment arrested in full +flow, stopped short, corked up, for want of a paltry rhyme! +Judge,--budge,--drudge,--nudge,--oh!--smudge,--misery!--fudge. In +vain,--futile,--no use,--all up for to-night!" + +While the poet, headed off in this way by the poverty of his native +tongue, sought inspiration by retiring into the world of dreams,--went +to bed, in short,--his more fortunate rival was just entering the +village, where he was to make his brief residence at the house of Deacon +Rumrill, who, having been a loser by the devouring element, was glad to +receive a stray boarder when any such were looking about for quarters. + +For some reason or other he was restless that evening, and took out a +volume he had brought with him to beguile the earlier hours of the +night. It was too late when he arrived to disturb the quiet of Mrs. +Hopkins's household; and whatever may have been Clement's impatience, he +held it in check, and sat tranquilly until midnight over the pages of +the book with which he had prudently provided himself. + +"Hope you slept well last night," said the old Deacon, when Mr. Clement +came down to breakfast the next morning. + +"Very well, thank you,--that is, after I got to bed. But I sat up pretty +late reading my favorite Scott. I am apt to forget how the hours pass +when I have one of his books in my hand." + +The worthy Deacon looked at Mr. Clement with a sudden accession of +interest. + +"You couldn't find better reading, young man. Scott is _my_ favorite +author. A great man. I have got his likeness in a gilt frame hanging up +in the other room. I have read him all through three times." + +The young man's countenance brightened. He had not expected to find so +much taste for elegant literature in an old village deacon. + +"What are your favorites among his writings, Deacon? I suppose you have +your particular likings, as the rest of us have." + +The Deacon was flattered by the question. "Well," he answered, "I can +hardly tell you. I like pretty much everything Scott ever wrote. +Sometimes I think it is one thing, and sometimes another. Great on +Paul's Epistles,--don't you think so?" + +The honest fact was, that Clement remembered very little about "Paul's +Letters to his Kinsfolk,"--a book of Sir Walter's less famous than many +of his others; but he signified his polite assent to the Deacon's +statement, rather wondering at his choice of a favorite, and smiling at +his queer way of talking about the Letters as Epistles. + +"I am afraid Scott is not so much read now-a-days as he once was, and as +he ought to be," said Mr. Clement. "Such character, such nature and so +much grace--" + +"That's it,--that's it, young man," the Deacon broke in,--"Natur' and +Grace,--Natur' and Grace. Nobody ever knew better what those two words +meant than Scott did, and I'm very glad to see you've chosen such good +wholesome reading. You can't set up too late, young man, to read Scott. +If I had twenty children, they should all begin reading Scott as soon as +they were old enough to spell 'sin,'--and that's the first word my +little ones learned, next to 'pa' and 'ma.' Nothing like beginning the +lessons of life in good season." + +"What a grim old satirist!" Clement said to himself. "I wonder if the +old man reads other novelists.--Do tell me, Deacon, if you have read +Thackeray's last story?" + +"Thackery's story? Published by the American Tract Society?" + +"Not exactly," Clement answered, smiling, and quite delighted to find +such an unexpected vein of grave pleasantry about the demure-looking +church-dignitary; for the Deacon asked his question without moving a +muscle, and took no cognizance whatever of the young man's tone and +smile. First-class humorists are, as is well known, remarkable for the +immovable solemnity of their features. Clement promised himself not a +little amusement from the curiously sedate drollery of the venerable +Deacon, who, it was plain from his conversation, had cultivated a +literary taste which would make him a more agreeable companion than the +common ecclesiastics of his grade in country villages. + +After breakfast, Mr. Clement walked forth in the direction of Mrs. +Hopkins's house, thinking as he went of the pleasant surprise his visit +would bring to his longing and doubtless pensive Susan; for though she +knew he was coming, she did not know that he was at that moment in Oxbow +Village. + +As he drew near the house, the first thing he saw was Susan Posey, +almost running against her just as he turned a corner. She looked +wonderfully lively and rosy, for the weather was getting keen and the +frosts had begun to bite. A young gentleman was walking at her side, and +reading to her from a paper he held in his hand. Both looked deeply +interested,--so much so that Clement felt half ashamed of himself for +intruding upon them so abruptly. + +But lovers are lovers, and Clement could not help joining them. The +first thing, of course, was the utterance of two simultaneous +exclamations, "Why, Clement!" "Why, Susan!" What might have come next in +the programme, but for the presence of a third party, is matter of +conjecture; but what did come next was a mighty awkward look on the part +of Susan Posey, and the following short speech:-- + +"Mr. Lindsay, let me introduce Mr. Hopkins, my friend, the poet I've +written to you about. He was just reading two of his poems to me. Some +other time, Gifted--Mr. Hopkins." + +"O no, Mr. Hopkins,--pray go on," said Clement. "I'm very fond of +poetry." + +The poet did not require much urging, and began at once reciting over +again the stanzas which were afterwards so much admired in the "Banner +and Oracle,"--the first verse being, as the readers of that paper will +remember,-- + + "She moves in splendor, like the ray + That flashes from unclouded skies, + And all the charms of night and day + Are mingled in her hair and eyes." + +Clement, who must have been in an agony of impatience to be alone with +his beloved, commanded his feelings admirably. He signified his +approbation of the poem by saying that the lines were smooth and the +rhymes absolutely without blemish. The stanzas reminded him forcibly of +one of the greatest poets of the century. + +Gifted flushed hot with pleasure. He had tasted the blood of his own +rhymes; and when a poet gets as far as that, it is like wringing the bag +of exhilarating gas from the lips of a fellow sucking at it, to drag his +piece away from him. + +"Perhaps you will like these lines still better," he said; "the style is +more modern:-- + + 'O daughter of the spiced South, + Her bubbly grapes have spilled the wine + That staineth with its hue divine + The red flower of thy perfect mouth.'" + +And so on, through a series of stanzas like these, with the pulp of two +rhymes between the upper and lower crust of two others. + +Clement was cornered. It was necessary to say something for the poet's +sake,--perhaps for Susan's; for she was in a certain sense responsible +for the poems of a youth of genius, of whom she had spoken so often and +so enthusiastically. + +"Very good, Mr. Hopkins, and a form of verse little used, I should +think, until of late years. You modelled this piece on the style of a +famous living English poet, did you not?" + +"Indeed I did not, Mr. Lindsay,--I never imitate. Originality is, if I +may be allowed to say so much for myself, my peculiar _forte_. Why, the +critics allow as much as that. See here, Mr. Lindsay." + +Mr. Gifted Hopkins pulled out his pocket-book, and, taking therefrom a +cutting from a newspaper,--which dropped helplessly open of itself, as +if tired of the process, being very tender in the joints or creases, by +reason of having been often folded and unfolded,--read aloud as +follows:-- + + "The bard of Oxbow Village--our valued correspondent who writes + over the signature of G. H.--is, in our opinion, more + remarkable for his _originality_ than for any other of his + numerous gifts." + +Clement was apparently silenced by this, and the poet a little elated +with a sense of triumph. Susan could not help sharing his feeling of +satisfaction, and without meaning it in the least, nay, without knowing +it, for she was as simple and pure as new milk, edged a little bit--the +merest infinitesimal atom--nearer to Gifted Hopkins, who was on one side +of her, while Clement walked on the other. Women love the conquering +party,--it is the way of their sex. And poets, as we have seen, are +wellnigh irresistible when they exert their dangerous power of +fascination upon the female heart. But Clement was above jealousy; and, +if he perceived anything of this movement, took no notice of it. + +He saw a good deal of his pretty Susan that day. She was tender in her +expressions and manners as usual, but there was a little something in +her looks and language from time to time that Clement did not know +exactly what to make of. She colored once or twice when the young poet's +name was mentioned. She was not so full of her little plans for the +future as she had sometimes been, "everything was so uncertain," she +said. Clement asked himself whether she felt quite as sure that her +attachment would last as she once did. But there were no reproaches, not +even any explanations, which are about as bad between lovers. There was +nothing but an undefined feeling on his side that she did not cling +quite so closely to him, perhaps, as he had once thought, and that, if +he had happened to have been drowned that day when he went down with the +beautiful young woman, it was just conceivable that Susan, who would +have cried dreadfully, no doubt, would in time have listened to +consolation from some other young man,--possibly from the young poet +whose verses he had been admiring. Easy-crying widows take new husbands +soonest; there is nothing like wet weather for transplanting, as Master +Gridley used to say. Susan had a fluent natural gift for tears, as +Clement well knew, after the exercise of which she used to brighten up +like the rose which had been washed, just washed in a shower, mentioned +by Cowper. + +As for the poet, he learned more of his own sentiments during this visit +of Clement's than he had ever before known. He wandered about with a +dreadfully disconsolate look upon his countenance. He showed a +falling-off in his appetite at tea-time, which surprised and disturbed +his mother, for she had filled the house with fragrant suggestions of +good things coming, in honor of Mr. Lindsay, who was to be her guest at +tea. And chiefly the genteel form of doughnut called in the native +dialect _cymbal_ (_Qu._ Symbol? B. G.) which graced the board with its +plastic forms, suggestive of the most pleasing objects,--the spiral +ringlets pendent from the brow of beauty,--the magic circlet, which is +the pledge of plighted affection,--the indissoluble knot, which typifies +the union of hearts, which organs were also largely represented; this +exceptional delicacy would at any other time have claimed his special +notice. But his mother remarked that he paid little attention to these, +and his "No, I thank you," when it came to the preserved "damsels" as +some call them, carried a pang with it to the maternal bosom. The most +touching evidence of his unhappiness--whether intentional or the result +of accident was not evident--was a _broken heart_, which he left upon +his plate, the meaning of which was as plain as anything in the language +of flowers. His thoughts were gloomy during that day, running a good +deal on the more picturesque and impressive methods of bidding a +voluntary farewell to a world which had allured him with visions of +beauty only to snatch them from his impassioned gaze. His mother saw +something of this, and got from him a few disjointed words, which led +her to lock up the clothes-line and hide her late husband's razors,--an +affectionate, yet perhaps unnecessary precaution, for self-elimination +contemplated from this point of view by those who have the natural +outlet of verse to relieve them is rarely followed by a casualty. It may +rather be considered as implying a more than average chance for +longevity; as those who meditate an imposing finish naturally save +themselves for it, and are therefore careful of their health until the +time comes, and this is apt to be indefinitely postponed so long as +there is a poem to write or a proof to be corrected. + + +CHAPTER XX. + +THE SECOND MEETING. + +"Miss Eveleth requests the pleasure of Mr. Lindsay's company to meet a +few friends on the evening of the Feast of St. Ambrose, December 7th, +Wednesday. + +"THE PARSONAGE, December 6th." + +It was the luckiest thing in the world. They always made a little +festival of that evening at the Rev. Ambrose Eveleth's, in honor of his +canonized namesake, and because they liked to have a good time. It came +this year just at the right moment, for here was a distinguished +stranger visiting in the place. Oxbow Village seemed to be running over +with its one extra young man,--as may be seen sometimes in larger +villages, and even in cities of moderate dimensions. + +Mr. William Murray Bradshaw had called on Clement the very day of his +arrival. He had already met the Deacon in the street, and asked some +questions about his transient boarder. + +A very interesting young man, the Deacon said, much given to the reading +of pious books. Up late at night after he came, reading Scott's +Commentary. Appeared to be as fond of serious works as other young folks +were of their novels and romances and other immoral publications. He, +the Deacon, thought of having a few religious friends to meet the young +gentleman, if he felt so disposed; and should like to have him, Mr. +Bradshaw, come in and take a part in the exercises.--Mr. Bradshaw was +unfortunately engaged. He thought the young gentleman could hardly find +time for such a meeting during his brief visit. + +Mr. Bradshaw expected naturally to see a youth of imperfect +constitution, and cachectic or dyspeptic tendencies, who was in training +to furnish one of those biographies beginning with the statement that, +from his infancy, the subject of it showed no inclination for boyish +amusements, and so on, until he dies out, for the simple reason that +there was not enough of him to live. Very interesting, no doubt, Master +Byles Gridley would have said, but had no more to do with good, hearty, +sound life than the history of those very little people to be seen in +museums, preserved in jars of alcohol, like brandy peaches. + +When Mr. Clement Lindsay presented himself, Mr. Bradshaw was a good deal +surprised to see a young fellow of such a mould. He pleased himself with +the idea that he knew a man of mark at sight, and he set down Clement in +that category at his first glance. The young man met his penetrating and +questioning look with a frank, ingenuous, open aspect, before which he +felt himself disarmed, as it were, and thrown upon other means of +analysis. He would try him a little in talk. + +"I hope you like these people you are with. What sort of a man do you +find my old friend the Deacon?" + +Clement laughed. "A very queer old character. Loves his joke as well, +and is as sly in making it, as if he had studied Joe Miller instead of +the Catechism." + +Mr. Bradshaw looked at the young man to know what he meant. Mr. Lindsay +talked in a very easy way for a serious young person. He was puzzled. He +did not see to the bottom of this description of the Deacon. With a +lawyer's instinct, he kept his doubts to himself and tried his witness +with a new question. + +"Did you talk about books at all with the old man?" + +"To be sure I did. Would you believe it, that aged saint is a great +novel-reader. So he tells me. What is more, he brings up his children to +that sort of reading, from the time when they first begin to spell. If +anybody else had told me such a story about an old country deacon, I +wouldn't have believed it; but he said so himself, to me, at breakfast +this morning." + +Mr. Bradshaw felt as if either he or Mr. Lindsay must certainly be in +the first stage of mild insanity, and he did not think that he himself +could be out of his wits. He must try one more question. He had become +so mystified that he forgot himself, and began putting his interrogation +in legal form. + +"Will you state, if you please--I beg your pardon--may I ask who is your +own favorite author?" + +"I think just now I like to read Scott better than almost anybody." + +"Do you mean the Rev. Thomas Scott, author of the Commentary?" + +Clement stared at Mr. Bradshaw, and wondered whether he was trying to +make a fool of him. The young lawyer hardly looked as if he could be a +fool himself. + +"I mean Sir Walter Scott," he said, dryly. + +"Oh!" said Mr. Bradshaw. He saw that there had been a slight +misunderstanding between the young man and his worthy host, but it was +none of his business, and there were other subjects of interest to talk +about. + +"You know one of our charming young ladies very well, I believe, Mr. +Lindsay. I think you are an old acquaintance of Miss Posey, whom we all +consider so pretty." + +Poor Clement! The question pierced to the very marrow of his soul, but +it was put with the utmost suavity and courtesy, and honeyed with a +compliment to the young lady, too, so that there was no avoiding a +direct and pleasant answer to it. + +"Yes," he said, "I have known the young lady you speak of for a long +time, and very well,--in fact, as you must have heard, we are something +more than friends. My visit here is principally on her account." + +"You must give the rest of us a chance to see something of you during +your visit, Mr. Lindsay. I hope you are invited to Miss Eveleth's this +evening?" + +"Yes, I got a note this morning. Tell me, Mr. Bradshaw, who is there +that I shall meet this evening if I go? I have no doubt there are girls +here I should like to see, and perhaps some young fellows that I should +like to talk with. You know all that's prettiest and pleasantest, of +course."' + +"O, we're a little place, Mr. Lindsay. A few nice people, the rest +_comme ca_, you know. High-bush blackberries and low-bush +blackberries,--you understand,--just so everywhere,--high-bush here and +there, low-bush plenty. You must see the two parsons' daughters,--Saint +Ambrose's and Saint Joseph's,--and another girl I want particularly to +introduce you to. You shall form your own opinion of her. _I_ call her +handsome and stylish, but you have got spoiled, you know. Our young +poet, too, one we raised in this place, Mr. Lindsay, and a superior +article of poet, as we think,--that is, some of us, for the rest of us +are jealous of him, because the girls are all dying for him and want his +autograph.--And Cyp,--yes, you must talk to Cyp,--he has ideas. But +don't forget to get hold of old Byles--Master Gridley I mean--before you +go. Big head. Brains enough for a cabinet minister, and fit out a +college faculty with what was left over. Be sure you see old Byles. Set +him talking about his book,--'Thoughts on the Universe.' Didn't sell +much, but has got knowing things in it. I'll show you a copy, and then +you can tell him you know it, and he will take to you. Come in and get +your dinner with me to-morrow. We will dine late, as the city folks do, +and after that we will go over to the Rector's. I should like to show +you some of our village people." + +Mr. Bradshaw liked the thought of showing the young man to some of his +friends there. As Clement was already "done for," or "bowled out," as +the young lawyer would have expressed the fact of his being pledged in +the matrimonial direction, there was nothing to be apprehended on the +score of rivalry. And although Clement was particularly good-looking, +and would have been called a distinguishable youth anywhere, Mr. +Bradshaw considered himself far more than his match, in all probability, +in social accomplishments. He expected, therefore, a certain amount of +reflex credit for bringing such a fine young fellow in his company, and +a second instalment of reputation from outshining him in conversation. +This was rather nice calculating, but Murray Bradshaw always calculated. +With most men life is like backgammon, half skill and half luck, but +with him it was like chess. He never pushed a pawn without reckoning the +cost, and when his mind was least busy it was sure to be half a dozen +moves ahead of the game as it was standing. + +Mr. Bradshaw gave Clement a pretty dinner enough for such a place as +Oxbow Village. He offered him some good wine, and would have made him +talk so as to show his lining, to use one of his own expressions, but +Clement had apparently been through that trifling experience, and could +not be coaxed into saying more than he meant to say. Murray Bradshaw was +very curious to find out how it was that he had become the victim of +such a rudimentary miss as Susan Posey. Could she be an heiress in +disguise? Why no, of course not; had not he made all proper inquiries +about that when Susan came to town? A small inheritance from an aunt or +uncle, or some such relative, enough to make her a desirable party in +the eyes of certain villagers perhaps, but nothing to allure a man like +this, whose face and figure as marketable possessions were worth say a +hundred thousand in the girl's own right, as Mr. Bradshaw put it +roughly, with another hundred thousand if his talent is what some say, +and if his connection is a desirable one, a fancy price,--anything he +would fetch. Of course not. Must have got caught when he was a child. +Why the _diavolo_ didn't he break it off, then? + +There was no fault to find with the modest entertainment at the +Parsonage. A splendid banquet in a great house is an admirable thing, +provided always its getting up did not cost the entertainer an inward +conflict, nor its recollection a twinge of economical regret, nor its +bills a cramp of anxiety. A simple evening party in the smallest village +is just as admirable in its degree, when the parlor is cheerfully +lighted, and the board prettily spread, and the guests are made to feel +comfortable without being reminded that anybody is making a painful +effort. + +We know several of the young people who were there, and need not trouble +ourselves for the others. Myrtle Hazard had promised to come. She had +her own way of late as never before; in fact, the women were afraid of +her. Miss Silence felt that she could not be responsible for her any +longer. She had hopes for a time that Myrtle would go through the +customary spiritual paroxysm under the influence of the Rev. Mr. +Stoker's assiduous exhortations; but since she had broken off with him, +Miss Silence had looked upon her as little better than a backslider. And +now that the girl was beginning to show the tendencies which seemed to +come straight down to her from the belle of the last century, (whose +rich physical developments seemed to the under-vitalized spinster as in +themselves a kind of offence against propriety,) the forlorn woman +folded her thin hands and looked on hopelessly, hardly venturing a +remonstrance for fear of some new explosion. As for Cynthia, she was +comparatively easy since she had, through Mr. Byles Gridley, upset the +minister's questionable apparatus of religious intimacy. She had, in +fact, in a quiet way, given Mr. Bradshaw to understand that he would +probably meet Myrtle at the Parsonage if he dropped in at their small +gathering. + +Clement walked over to Mrs. Hopkins's after his dinner with the young +lawyer, and asked if Susan was ready to go with him. At the sound of his +voice, Gifted Hopkins smote his forehead, and called himself, in subdued +tones, a miserable being. His imagination wavered uncertain for a while +between pictures of various modes of ridding himself of existence, and +fearful deeds involving the life of others. He had no fell purpose of +actually doing either, but there was a gloomy pleasure in contemplating +them as possibilities, and in mentally sketching the "Lines written in +Despair" which would be found in what was but an hour before the pocket +of the youthful bard, G. H., victim of a hopeless passion. All this +emotion was in the nature of a surprise to the young man. He had fully +believed himself desperately in love with Myrtle Hazard; and it was not +until Clement came into the family circle with the right of eminent +domain over the realm of Susan's affections, that this unfortunate +discovered that Susan's pretty ways and morning dress and love of poetry +and liking for his company had been too much for him, and that he was +henceforth to be wretched during the remainder of his natural life, +except so far as he could unburden himself in song. + +Mr. William Murray Bradshaw had asked the privilege of waiting upon +Myrtle to the little party at the Eveleths. Myrtle was not insensible to +the attractions of the young lawyer, though she had never thought of +herself except as a child in her relations with any of these older +persons. But she was not the same girl that she had been but a few +months before. She had achieved her independence by her audacious and +most dangerous enterprise. She had gone through strange nervous trials +and spiritual experiences, which had matured her more rapidly than years +of common life would have done. She had got back her health, bringing +with it a riper wealth of womanhood. She had found her destiny in the +consciousness that she inherited the beauty belonging to her blood, and +which, after sleeping for a generation or two as if to rest from the +glare of the pageant that follows beauty through its long career of +triumph, had come to the light again in her life, and was to repeat the +legends of the olden time in her own history. + +Myrtle's wardrobe had very little of ornament, such as the _modistes_ of +the town would have thought essential to render a young girl like her +presentable. There were a few heirlooms of old date, however, which she +had kept as curiosities until now, and which she looked over until she +found some lace and other convertible material, with which she enlivened +her costume a little for the evening. As she clasped the antique +bracelet around her wrist, she felt as if it were an amulet that gave +her the power of charming which had been so long obsolete in her +lineage. At the bottom of her heart she cherished a secret longing to +try her fascinations on the young lawyer. Who could blame her? It was +not an inwardly expressed intention,--it was the mere blind instinctive +movement to subjugate the strongest of the other sex who had come in her +way, which, as already said, is as natural to a woman as it is to a man +to be captivated by the loveliest of those to whom he dares to aspire. + +Before William Murray Bradshaw and Myrtle Hazard had reached the +Parsonage, the girl's cheeks were flushed and her dark eyes were +flashing with a new excitement. The young man had not made love to her +directly, but he had interested her in herself by a delicate and tender +flattery of manner, and so set her fancies working that she was taken +with him as never before, and wishing that the Parsonage had been a mile +farther from The Poplars. It was impossible for a young girl like Myrtle +to conceal the pleasure she received from listening to her seductive +admirer, who was trying all his trained skill upon his artless +companion. Murray Bradshaw felt sure that the game was in his hands if +he played it with only common prudence. There was no need of hurrying +this child,--it might startle her to make downright love abruptly; and +now that he had an ally in her own household, and was to have access to +her with a freedom he had never before enjoyed, there was a refined +pleasure in playing his fish,--this gamest of golden-scaled +creatures,--which had risen to his fly, and which he wished to hook, but +not to land, until he was sure it would be worth his while. + +They entered the little parlor at the Parsonage looking so beaming, that +Olive and Bathsheba exchanged glances which implied so much that it +would take a full page to tell it with all the potentialities involved. + +"How magnificent Myrtle is this evening, Bathsheba!" said Cyprian +Eveleth, pensively. + +"What a handsome pair they are, Cyprian!" said Bathsheba cheerfully. + +Cyprian sighed. "She always fascinates me whenever I look upon her. +Isn't she the very picture of what a poet's love should be,--a poem +herself,--a glorious lyric,--all light and music! See what a smile the +creature has! And her voice! When did you ever hear such tones? And when +was it ever so full of life before?" + +Bathsheba sighed. "I do not know any poets but Gifted Hopkins. Does not +Myrtle look more in her place by the side of Murray Bradshaw than she +would with Gifted hitched on her arm?" + +Just then the poet made his appearance. He looked depressed, as if it +had cost him an effort to come. He was, however, charged with a message +which he must deliver to the hostess of the evening. + +"They're coming presently," he said. "That young man and Susan. Wants +you to introduce him, Mr. Bradshaw." + +The bell rang presently, and Murray Bradshaw slipped out into the entry +to meet the two lovers. + +"How are you, my fortunate friend?" he said, as he met them at the door. +"Of course you're well and happy as mortal man can be in this vale of +tears. Charming, ravishing, quite delicious, that way of dressing your +hair, Miss Posey! Nice girls here this evening, Mr. Lindsay. Looked +lovely when I came out of the parlor. Can't say how they will show after +this young lady puts in an appearance." In reply to which florid +speeches Susan blushed, not knowing what else to do, and Clement smiled +as naturally as if he had been sitting for his photograph. + +He felt, in a vague way, that he and Susan were being patronized, which +is not a pleasant feeling to persons with a certain pride of character. +There was no expression of contempt about Mr. Bradshaw's manner or +language at which he could take offence. Only he had the air of a man +who praises his neighbor without stint, with a calm consciousness that +he himself is out of reach of comparison in the possessions or qualities +which he is admiring in the other. Clement was right in his obscure +perception of Mr. Bradshaw's feeling while he was making his phrases. +That gentleman was, in another moment, to have the tingling delight of +showing the grand creature he had just begun to tame. He was going to +extinguish the pallid light of Susan's prettiness in the brightness of +Myrtle's beauty. He would bring this young man, neutralized and rendered +entirely harmless by his irrevocable pledge to a slight girl, face to +face with a masterpiece of young womanhood, and say to him, not in +words, but as plainly as speech could have told him, "Behold my +captive!" + +It was a proud moment for Murray Bradshaw. He had seen, or thought that +he had seen, the assured evidence of a speedy triumph over all the +obstacles of Myrtle's youth and his own present seeming slight excess of +maturity. Unless he were very greatly mistaken, he could now walk the +course; the plate was his, no matter what might be the entries. And this +youth, this handsome, spirited-looking, noble-aired young fellow, whose +artist-eye could not miss a line of Myrtle's proud and almost defiant +beauty, was to be the witness of his power, and to look in admiration +upon his prize! He introduced him to the others, reserving her for the +last. She was at that moment talking with the worthy Rector, and turned +when Mr. Bradshaw spoke to her. + +"Miss Hazard, will you allow me to present to you my friend, Mr. Clement +Lindsay?" + +They looked full upon each other, and spoke the common words of +salutation. It was a strange meeting; but we who profess to tell the +truth must tell strange things, or we shall be liars. + +In poor little Susan's letter there was some allusion to a bust of +Innocence which the young artist had begun, but of which he had said +nothing in his answer to her. He had roughed out a block of marble for +that impersonation; sculpture was a delight to him, though secondary to +his main pursuit. After his memorable adventure, the features and the +forms of the girl he had rescued so haunted him that the pale ideal +which was to work itself out in the bust faded away in its perpetual +presence, and--alas, poor Susan!--in obedience to the impulse that he +could not control, he left Innocence sleeping in the marble, and began +modelling a figure of proud and noble and imperious beauty, to which he +gave the name of Liberty. + +The original which had inspired his conception was before him. These +were the lips to which his own had clung when he brought her back from +the land of shadows. The hyacinthine curl of her lengthening locks had +added something to her beauty; but it was the same face which had +haunted him. This was the form he had borne seemingly lifeless in his +arms, and the bosom which heaved so visibly before him was that which +his eyes--. They were the calm eyes of a sculptor, but of a sculptor +hardly twenty years old. + +Yes,--her bosom was heaving. She had an unexplained feeling of +suffocation, and drew great breaths,--she could not have said why,--but +she could not help it; and presently she became giddy, and had a great +noise in her ears, and rolled her eyes about, and was on the point of +going into an hysteric spasm. They called Dr. Hurlbut, who was making +himself agreeable to Olive just then, to come and see what was the +matter with Myrtle. + +"A little nervous turn,--that is all," he said. "Open the window. Loose +the ribbon round her neck. Rub her hands. Sprinkle some water on her +forehead. A few drops of cologne. Room too warm for her,--that's all, I +think." + +Myrtle came to herself after a time without anything like a regular +paroxysm. But she was excitable, and whatever the cause of the +disturbance may have been, it seemed prudent that she should go home +early; and the excellent Rector insisted on caring for her, much to the +discontent of Mr. William Murray Bradshaw. + +"Demonish odd," said this gentleman, "wasn't it, Mr. Lindsay, that Miss +Hazard should go off in that way? Did you ever see her before?" + +"I--I--have seen that young lady before," Clement answered. + +"Where did you meet her?" Mr. Bradshaw asked, with eager interest. + +"I met her in the Valley of the Shadow of Death," Clement answered, very +solemnly.--"I leave this place to-morrow morning. Have you any commands +for the city?" + +("Knows how to shut a fellow up pretty well for a young one, doesn't +he?" Mr. Bradshaw thought to himself.) + +"Thank you, no," he answered, recovering himself. "Rather a melancholy +place to make acquaintance in, I should think, that Valley you spoke of. +I should like to know about it." + +Mr. Clement had the power of looking steadily into another person's eyes +in a way that was by no means encouraging to curiosity or favorable to +the process of cross-examination. Mr. Bradshaw was not disposed to press +his question in the face of the calm, repressive look the young man gave +him. + +"If he wasn't bagged, I shouldn't like the shape of things any too +well," he said to himself. + +The conversation between Mr. Clement Lindsay and Miss Susan Posey, as +they walked home together, was not very brilliant. "I am going +to-morrow morning," he said, "and I must bid you good by to-night." +Perhaps it is as well to leave two lovers to themselves, under these +circumstances. + +Before he went he spoke to his worthy host, whose moderate demands he +had to satisfy, and with whom he wished to exchange a few words. + +"And by the way, Deacon, I have no use for this book, and as it is in a +good type, perhaps you would like it. Your favorite, Scott, and one of +his greatest works. I have another edition of it at home, and don't care +for this volume." + +"Thank you, thank you, Mr. Lindsay, much obleeged. I shall read that +copy for your sake,--the best of books next to the Bible itself." + +After Mr. Lindsay had gone, the Deacon looked at the back of the book. +"Scott's Works, Vol. IX." He opened it at hazard, and happened to fall +on a well-known page, from which he began reading aloud, slowly, + + "When Izrul, of the Lord beloved, + Out of the land of bondage came." + +The whole hymn pleased the grave Deacon. He had never seen this work of +the author of the Commentary. No matter; anything that such a good man +wrote must be good reading, and he would save it up for Sunday. The +consequence of this was, that, when the Rev. Mr. Stoker stopped in on +his way to meeting on the "Sabbath," he turned white with horror at the +spectacle of the senior Deacon of his church sitting, open-mouthed and +wide-eyed, absorbed in the pages of "Ivanhoe," which he found enormously +interesting; but, so far as he had yet read, not occupied with religious +matters so much as he had expected. + +Myrtle had no explanation to give of her nervous attack. Mr. Bradshaw +called the day after the party, but did not see her. He met her walking, +and thought she seemed a little more distant than common. That would +never do. He called again at The Poplars a few days afterwards, and was +met in the entry by Miss Cynthia, with whom he had a long conversation +on matters involving Myrtle's interests and their own. + + + + +A PASSAGE FROM HAWTHORNE'S ENGLISH NOTEBOOKS. + + +Our road to Rydal lay through Ambleside, which is certainly a very +pretty town, and looks cheerfully on a sunny day. We saw Miss +Martineau's residence, called the Knoll, standing high up on a hillock, +and having at its foot a Methodist chapel, for which, or whatever place +of Christian worship, this good lady can have no occasion. We stopped a +moment in the street below her house, and deliberated a little whether +to call on her, but concluded otherwise. + +After leaving Ambleside, the road winds in and out among the hills, and +soon brings us to a sheet (or napkin, rather, than a sheet) of water, +which the driver tells us is Rydal Lake! We had already heard that it +was but three quarters of a mile long, and one quarter broad; still, it +being an idea of considerable size in our minds, we had inevitably drawn +its ideal physical proportions on a somewhat corresponding scale. It +certainly did look very small; and I said, in my American scorn, that I +could carry it away easily in a porringer; for it is nothing more than a +grassy-bordered pool among the surrounding hills, which ascend directly +from its margin; so that one might fancy it not a permanent body of +water, but a rather extensive accumulation of recent rain. Moreover, it +was rippled with a breeze, and so, as I remember it, though the sun +shone, it looked dull and sulky, like a child out of humor. Now the best +thing these small ponds can do is to keep perfectly calm and smooth, and +not to attempt to show off any airs of their own, but content themselves +with serving as a mirror for whatever of beautiful or picturesque there +may be in the scenery around them. The hills about Rydal water are not +very lofty, but are sufficiently so as objects of every-day +view,--objects to live with,--and they are craggier than those we have +hitherto seen, and bare of wood, which indeed would hardly grow on some +of their precipitous sides. + +On the roadside, as we reach the foot of the lake, stands a spruce and +rather large house of modern aspect, but with several gables, and much +overgrown with ivy,--a very pretty and comfortable house, built, +adorned, and cared for with commendable taste. We inquired whose it was, +and the coachman said it was "Mr. Wordsworth's," and that Mrs. +Wordsworth was still residing there. So we were much delighted to have +seen his abode; and as we were to stay the night at Grasmere, about two +miles farther on, we determined to come back and inspect it as +particularly as should be allowable. Accordingly, after taking rooms at +Brown's Hotel, we drove back in our return car, and, reaching the head +of Rydal water, alighted to walk through this familiar scene of so many +years of Wordsworth's life. We ought to have seen De Quincey's former +residence, and Hartley Coleridge's cottage, I believe, on our way, but +were not aware of it at the time. Near the lake there is a stone quarry, +and a cavern of some extent, artificially formed, probably, by taking +out the stone. Above the shore of the lake, not a great way from +Wordsworth's residence, there is a flight of steps hewn in a rock, and +ascending to a seat, where a good view of the lake may be attained; and +as Wordsworth has doubtless sat there hundreds of times, so did we +ascend and sit down and look at the hills and at the flags on the +lake's shore. + +Reaching the house that had been pointed out to us as Wordsworth's +residence, we began to peer about at its front and gables, and over the +garden-wall on both sides of the road, quickening our enthusiasm as much +as we could, and meditating to pilfer some flower or ivy-leaf from the +house or its vicinity, to be kept as sacred memorials. At this juncture +a man approached, who announced himself as the gardener of the place, +and said, too, that this was not Wordsworth's house at all, but the +residence of Mr. Ball, a Quaker gentleman; but that his ground adjoined +Wordsworth's, and that he had liberty to take visitors through the +latter. How absurd it would have been if we had carried away ivy-leaves +and tender recollections from this domicile of a respectable Quaker! The +gardener was an intelligent young man, of pleasant, sociable, and +respectful address; and as we went along, he talked about the poet, whom +he had known, and who, he said, was very familiar with the country +people. He led us through Mr. Ball's grounds, up a steep hillside, by +winding, gravelled walks, with summer-houses at points favorable for +them. It was a very shady and pleasant spot, containing about an acre of +ground, and all turned to good account by the manner of laying it out; +so that it seemed more than it really was. In one place, on a small, +smooth slab of slate let into a rock, there is an inscription by +Wordsworth, which I think I have read in his works, claiming kindly +regards from those who visit the spot, after his departure, because many +trees had been spared at his intercession. His own grounds, or rather +his ornamental garden, is separated from Mr. Ball's only by a wire +fence, or some such barrier, and the gates have no fastening, so that +the whole appears like one possession, and doubtless was so as regarded +the poet's walks and enjoyments. We approached by paths so winding, that +I hardly know how the house stands in relation to the road; but, after +much circuity, we really did see Wordsworth's residence,--an old house, +with an uneven ridge-pole, built of stone, no doubt, but plastered over +with some neutral tint,--a house that would not have been remarkably +pretty in itself, but so delightfully situated, so secluded, so hedged +about with shrubbery and adorned with flowers, so ivy-grown on one side, +so beautified with the personal care of him who lived in it and loved +it, that it seemed the very place for a poet's residence; and as if, +while he lived so long in it, his poetry had manifested itself in +flowers, shrubbery, and ivy. I never smelt such a delightful fragrance +of flowers as there was all through the garden. In front of the house, +there is a circular terrace, of two ascents, in raising which Wordsworth +had himself performed much of the labor; and here there are seats, from +which we obtained a fine view down the valley of the Rothay, with +Windermere in the distance,--a view of several miles, and which we did +not suppose could be seen, after winding among the hills so far from the +lake. It is very beautiful and picture-like. While we sat here, mamma +happened to refer to the ballad of little Barbara Lewthwaite, and Julian +began to repeat the poem concerning her; and the gardener said that +little Barbara had died not a great while ago, an elderly woman, leaving +grown-up children behind her. Her marriage-name was Thompson, and the +gardener believed there was nothing remarkable in her character. + +There is a summer-house at one extremity of the grounds, in deepest +shadow, but with glimpses of mountain-views through trees which shut it +in, and which have spread intercepting boughs since Wordsworth died. It +is lined with pine-cones, in a pretty way enough, but of doubtful taste. +I rather wonder that people of real taste should help Nature out, and +beautify her, or perhaps rather _prettify_ her so much as they +do,--opening vistas, showing one thing, hiding another, making a scene +picturesque whether or no. I cannot rid myself of the feeling that there +is something false, a kind of humbug, in all this. At any rate, the +traces of it do not contribute to my enjoyment, and, indeed, it ought to +be done so exquisitely as to leave no trace. But I ought not to +criticise in any way a spot which gave me so much pleasure, and where it +is good to think of Wordsworth in quiet, past days, walking in his +home-shadow of trees which he knew, and training flowers, and trimming +shrubs, and chanting in an undertone his own verses, up and down the +winding walks. + +The gardener gave Julian a cone from the summer-house, which had fallen +on the seat, and mamma got some mignonette, and leaves of laurel and +ivy, and we wended our way back to the hotel. + +Wordsworth was not the owner of this house, it being the property of +Lady Fleming. Mrs. Wordsworth still lives there, and is now at home. + +_Five o'clock._--All day it has been cloudy and showery, with thunder +now and then; the mists hang low on the surrounding hills, adown which, +at various points, we can see the snow-white fall of little +streamlets--forces they call them here--swollen by the rain. An overcast +day is not so gloomy in the hill-country as in the lowlands; there are +more breaks, more transfusion of sky-light through the gloom, as has +been the case to-day; and, as I found in Lenox, we get better acquainted +with clouds by seeing at what height they lie on the hillsides, and find +that the difference betwixt a fair day and a cloudy and rainy one is +very superficial, after all. Nevertheless, rain is rain, and wets a man +just as much among the mountains as anywhere else; so we have been kept +within doors all day, till an hour or so ago, when Julian and I went +down to the village in quest of the post-office. + +We took a path that leads from the hotel across the fields, and, coming +into a wood, crosses the Rothay by a one-arched bridge, and passes the +village church. The Rothay is very swift and turbulent to-day, and +hurries along with foam-specks on its surface, filling its banks from +brim to brim, a stream perhaps twenty feet wide, perhaps more; for I am +willing that the good little river should have all it can fairly claim. +It is the St. Lawrence of several of these English lakes, through which +it flows, and carries off their superfluous waters. In its haste, and +with its rushing sound, it was pleasant both to see and hear; and it +sweeps by one side of the old churchyard where Wordsworth lies +buried,--the side where his grave is made. The church of Grasmere is a +very plain structure, with a low body, on one side of which is a low +porch with a pointed arch. The tower is square, and looks ancient; but +the whole is overlaid with plaster of a buff or pale-yellow hue. It was +originally built, I suppose, of rough, shingly stones, as many of the +houses hereabouts are now, and the plaster is used to give a finish. We +found the gate of the churchyard wide open; and the grass was lying on +the graves, having probably been mowed yesterday. It is but a small +churchyard, and with few monuments of any pretension in it, most of them +being slate headstones, standing erect. From the gate at which we +entered a distinct foot-track leads to the corner nearest the +river-side, and I turned into it by a sort of instinct, the more readily +as I saw a tourist-looking man approaching from that point, and a woman +looking among the gravestones. Both of these persons had gone by the +time I came up, so that Julian and I were left to find Wordsworth's +grave all by ourselves. + +At this corner of the churchyard there is a hawthorn bush or tree, the +extremest branches of which stretch as far as where Wordsworth lies. +This whole corner seems to be devoted to himself and his family and +friends; and they all lie very closely together, side by side, and head +to foot, as room could conveniently be found. Hartley Coleridge lies a +little behind, in the direction of the church, his feet being towards +Wordsworth's head, who lies in the row of those of his own blood. I +found out Hartley Coleridge's grave sooner than Wordsworth's; for it is +of marble, and, though simple enough, has more of sculptured device +about it, having been erected, as I think the inscription states, by his +brother and sister. Wordsworth's has only the very simplest slab of +slate, with "William Wordsworth" and nothing else upon it. As I +recollect it, it is the midmost grave of the row. It is, or has been, +well grass-grown, but the grass is quite worn away from the top, though +sufficiently luxuriant at the sides. It looks as if people had stood +upon it, and so does the grave next to it, which, I believe, is of one +of his children. I plucked some grass and weeds from it; and as he was +buried within so few years, they may fairly be supposed to have drawn +their nutriment from his mortal remains, and I gathered them from just +above his head. There is no fault to be found with his grave,--within +view of the hills, within sound of the river, murmuring near by,--no +fault, except that he is crowded so closely with his kindred; and, +moreover, that, being so old a churchyard, the earth over him must all +have been human once. He might have had fresh earth to himself, but he +chose this grave deliberately. No very stately and broad-based monument +can ever be erected over it, without infringing upon, covering, and +overshadowing the graves, not only of his family, but of individuals who +probably were quite disconnected with him. But it is pleasant to think +and know--were it but on the evidence of this choice of a +resting-place--that he did not care for a stately monument. After +leaving the churchyard, we wandered about in quest of the post-office, +and for a long time without success. This little town of Grasmere seems +to me as pretty a place as ever I met with in my life. It is quite shut +in by hills that rise up immediately around it, like a neighborhood of +kindly giants. These hills descend steeply to the verge of the level on +which the village stands, and there they terminate at once, the whole +site of the little town being as even as a floor. I call it a village; +but it is no village at all, all the dwellings standing apart, each in +its own little domain, and each, I believe, with its own little lane +leading to it, independently of the rest. Most of these are old +cottages, plastered white, with antique porches, and roses and other +vines trained against them, and shrubbery growing about them; and some +are covered with ivy. There are a few edifices of more pretension and of +modern build, but not so strikingly as to put the rest out of +countenance. The post-office, when we found it, proved to be an ivied +cottage, with a good deal of shrubbery round it, having its own pathway, +like the other cottages. The whole looks like a real seclusion, shut out +from the great world by these encircling hills, on the sides of which, +whenever they are not too steep, you see the division-lines of property, +and tokens of cultivation,--taking from them their pretensions to savage +majesty, but bringing them nearer to the heart of man. + +Since writing the above, I have been again with S---- to see +Wordsworth's grave, and, finding the door of the church open, we went +in. A woman and little girl were sweeping at the farther end, and the +woman came towards us out of the cloud of dust which she had raised. We +were surprised at the extremely antique appearance of the church. It is +paved with bluish-gray flagstones, over which uncounted generations have +trodden, leaving the floor as well laid as ever. The walls are very +thick, and the arched windows open through them at a considerable +distance above the floor. And down through the centre of the church runs +a row of five arches, very rude and round-headed, all of rough stone, +supported by rough and massive pillars, or rather square stone blocks, +which stand in the pews, and stood in the same places, probably, long +before the wood of those pews began to grow. Above this row of arches is +another row, built upon the same mass of stone, and almost as broad, but +lower; and on this upper row rests the framework, the oaken beams, the +black skeleton of the roof. It is a very clumsy contrivance for +supporting the roof, and if it were modern we certainly should condemn +it as very ugly; but being the relic of a simple age, it comes in well +with the antique simplicity of the whole structure. The roof goes up, +barn-like, into its natural angle, and all the rafters and cross-beams +are visible. There is an old font; and in the chancel is a niche, where, +judging from a similar one in Furness Abbey, the holy water used to be +placed for the priest's use while celebrating mass. Around the inside of +the porch is a stone bench, placed against the wall, narrow and uneasy, +but where a great many people had sat who now have found quieter +resting-places. + +The woman was a very intelligent-looking person, not of the usual +English ruddiness, but rather thin and somewhat pale, though bright of +aspect. Her way of talking was very agreeable. She inquired if we wished +to see Wordsworth's monument, and at once showed it to us,--a slab of +white marble fixed against the upper end of the central row of stone +arches, with a pretty long inscription, and a profile bust, in +bas-relief, of his aged countenance. The monument is placed directly +over Wordsworth's pew, and could best be seen and read from the very +corner-seat where he used to sit. The pew is one of those occupying the +centre of the church, and is just across the aisle from the pulpit, and +is the best of all for the purpose of seeing and hearing the clergyman, +and likewise as convenient as any, from its neighborhood to the altar. +On the other side of the aisle, beneath the pulpit, is Lady Fleming's +pew. This and one or two others are curtained; Wordsworth's was not. I +think I can bring up his image in that corner seat of his pew--a +white-headed, tall, spare man, plain in aspect--better than in any other +situation. The woman said that she had known him very well, and that he +had made some verses on a sister of hers. She repeated the first lines, +something about a lamb; but neither S---- nor I remembered them. + +On the walls of the chancel there are monuments to the Flemings, and +painted escutcheons of their arms; and along the side walls also, and on +the square pillars of the row of arches, there are other monuments, +generally of white marble, with the letters of the inscription +blackened. On these pillars, likewise, and in many places in the walls, +were hung verses from Scripture, painted on boards. At one of the doors +was a poor-box, an elaborately carved little box of oak, with the date +1648, and the name of the church--St. Oswald's--upon it. The whole +interior of the edifice was plain, simple, almost to grimness,--or would +have been so, only that the foolish church-wardens, or other authority, +have washed it over with the same buff color with which they have +overlaid the exterior. It is a pity; it lightens it up, and desecrates +it horribly, especially as the woman says that there were formerly +paintings on the walls, now obliterated forever. I could have stayed in +the old church much longer, and could write much more about it, but +there must be an end to everything. Pacing it from the farther end to +the elevation before the altar, I found that it was twenty-five paces +long. + +On looking again at the Rothay, I find I did it some injustice; for at +the bridge, in its present swollen state, it is nearer twenty yards than +twenty feet across. Its waters are very clear, and it rushes along with +a speed which is delightful to see, after an acquaintance with the muddy +and sluggish Avon and Leam. + +Since tea, I have taken a stroll from the hotel in a different direction +from usual, and passed the Swan Inn, where Scott used to go daily to get +a draught of liquor when he was visiting Wordsworth, who had no wine nor +other inspiriting fluid in his house. It stands directly on the wayside, +a small, whitewashed house, with an addition in the rear that seems to +have been built since Scott's time. On the door is the painted sign of +a swan,--and the name "Scott's Swan Hotel." I walked a considerable +distance beyond it; but a shower coming up, I turned back, entered the +inn, and, following the mistress into a snug little room, was served +with a glass of bitter ale. It is a very plain and homely inn, and +certainly could not have satisfied Scott's wants, if he had required +anything very farfetched or delicate in his potations. I found two +Westmoreland peasants in the room with ale before them. One went away +almost immediately; but the other remained, and, entering into +conversation with him, he told me that he was going to New Zealand, and +expected to sail in September. I announced myself as an American, and he +said that a large party had lately gone from hereabouts to America; but +he seemed not to understand that there was any distinction between +Canada and the States. These people had gone to Quebec. He was a very +civil, well-behaved, kindly sort of person, of a simple character, which +I took to belong to the class and locality, rather than to himself +individually. I could not very well understand all that he said, owing +to his provincial dialect; and when he spoke to his own countrymen, or +to the women of the house, I really could but just catch a word here and +there. How long it takes to melt English down into a homogeneous mass! +He told me that there was a public library in Grasmere, to which he has +access in common with the other inhabitants, and a reading-room +connected with it, where he reads the "Times" in the evening. There was +no American smartness in his mind. When I left the house, it was +showering briskly; but the drops quite ceased, and the clouds began to +break away, before I reached my hotel, and I saw the new moon over my +right shoulder. + + * * * * * + +_July 21._--We left Grasmere yesterday, after breakfast, it being a +delightful morning, with some clouds, but the cheerfullest sunshine on +great part of the mountain-sides and on ourselves. We returned, in the +first place, to Ambleside, along the border of Grasmere Lake, which +would be a pretty little piece of water, with its steep and +high-surrounding hills, were it not that a stubborn and straight-lined +stone fence, running along the eastern shore, by the roadside, quite +spoils its appearance. Rydal water, though nothing can make a lake of +it, looked prettier and less diminutive than at the first view; and, in +fact, I find that it is impossible to know accurately how any prospect +or other thing looks until after at least a second view, which always +essentially corrects the first. This, I think, is especially true in +regard to objects which we have heard much about, and exercised our +imagination upon; the first view being a vain attempt to reconcile our +idea with the reality, and at the second we begin to accept the thing +for what it really is. Wordsworth's situation is really a beautiful one; +and Nab Scaur behind his house rises with a grand, protecting air. We +passed Nab's cottage, in which De Quincey formerly lived, and where +Hartley Coleridge lived and died. It is a small, buff-tinted, plastered, +stone cottage, immediately on the roadside, and originally, I should +think, of a very humble class; but it now looks as if persons of taste +might some time or other have sat down in it, and caused flowers to +spring up about it. It is very agreeably situated, under the great, +precipitous hill, and with Rydal water close at hand, on the other side +of the road. An advertisement of lodgings to let was put up on this +cottage. + +I question whether any part of the world looks so beautiful as +England--this part of England, at least--on a fine summer morning. It +makes one think the more cheerfully of human life to see such a bright, +universal verdure; such sweet, rural, peaceful, flower-bordered +cottages,--not cottages of gentility, but dwellings of the laboring +poor; such nice villas along the roadside, so tastefully contrived for +comfort and beauty, and adorned more and more, year after year, with the +care and afterthought of people who mean to live in them a great while, +and feel as if their children might live in them also. And so they plant +trees to overshadow their walks, and train ivy and all beautiful vines +up against their walls,--and thus live for the future in another sense +than we Americans do. And the climate helps them out, and makes +everything moist and green, and full of tender life, instead of dry and +arid, as human life and vegetable life are so apt to be with us. +Certainly, England can present a more attractive face than we can, even +in its humbler modes of life,--to say nothing of the beautiful lives +that might be led, one would think, by the higher classes, whose +gateways, with broad, smooth gravelled drives leading through them, one +sees every mile or two along the road, winding into some proud +seclusion. All this is passing away, and society must assume new +relations; but there is no harm in believing that there has been +something very good in English life,--good for all classes, while the +world was in a state out of which these forms naturally grew. + + + + +MONA'S MOTHER. + + + In the porch that brier-vines smother, + At her wheel, sits Mona's mother. + O, the day is dying bright! + Roseate shadows, silver dimming, + Ruby lights through amber swimming, + Bring the still and starry night. + + Sudden she is 'ware of shadows + Going out across the meadows + From the slowly sinking sun,-- + Going through the misty spaces + That the rippling ruby laces, + Shadows, like the violets tangled, + Like the soft light, softly mingled, + Till the two seem just as one! + + Every tell-tale wind doth waft her + Little breaths of maiden laughter. + O, divinely dies the day! + And the swallow, on the rafter, + In her nest of sticks and clay,-- + On the rafter, up above her, + With her patience doth reprove her, + Twittering soft the time away; + Never stopping, never stopping, + With her wings so warmly dropping + Round her nest of sticks and clay. + + "Take, my bird, O take some other + Eve than this to twitter gay!" + Sayeth, prayeth Mona's mother, + To the slender-throated swallow + On her nest of sticks and clay; + For her sad eyes needs must follow + Down the misty, mint-sweet hollow, + Where the ruby colors play + With the gold, and with the gray. + "Yet, my little Lady-feather, + You do well to sit and sing," + Crieth, sigheth Mona's mother. + "If you would, you could no other. + Can the leaf fail with the spring? + Can the tendril stay from twining + When the sap begins to run? + Or the dew-drop keep from shining + With her body full o' the sun? + Nor can you, from gladness, either; + Therefore, you do well to sing. + Up and o'er the downy lining + Of your bird-bed I can see + Two round little heads together, + Pushed out softly through your wing. + But alas! my bird, for me!" + + In the porch with roses burning + All across, she sitteth lonely. + O, her soul is dark with dread! + Round and round her slow wheel turning, + Lady brow down-dropped serenely, + Lady hand uplifted queenly, + Pausing in the spinning only + To rejoin the broken thread,-- + Pausing only for the winding, + With the carded silken binding + Of the flax, the distaff-head. + + All along the branches creeping, + To their leafy beds of sleeping + Go the blue-birds and the brown; + Blackbird stoppeth now his clamor, + And the little yellowhammer + Droppeth head in winglet down. + Now the rocks rise bleak and barren + Through the twilight, gray and still; + In the marsh-land now the heron + Clappeth close his horny bill. + Death-watch now begins his drumming + And the fire-fly, going, coming, + Weaveth zigzag lines of light,-- + Lines of zigzag, golden-threaded, + Up the marshy valley, shaded + O'er and o'er with vapors white. + Now the lily, open-hearted, + Of her dragon-fly deserted, + Swinging on the wind so low, + Gives herself, with trust audacious, + To the wild warm wave that washes + Through her fingers, soft and slow. + + O the eyes of Mona's mother! + Dim they grow with tears unshed; + For no longer may they follow + Down the misty mint-sweet hollow, + Down along the yellow mosses + That the brook with silver crosses. + Ah! the day is dead, is dead; + And the cold and curdling shadows, + Stretching from the long, low meadows, + Darker, deeper, nearer spread, + Till she cannot see the twining + Of the briers, nor see the lining + Round the porch of roses red,-- + Till she cannot see the hollow, + Nor the little steel-winged swallow, + On her clay-built nest o'erhead. + + Mona's mother falleth mourning: + O, 't is hard, so hard, to see + Prattling child to woman turning, + As to grander company! + Little heart she lulled with hushes + Beating, burning up with blushes, + All with meditative dreaming + On the dear delicious gleaming + Of the bridal veil and ring; + Finding in the sweet ovations + Of its new, untried relations + Better joys than she can bring. + + In her hand her wheel she keepeth, + And her heart within her leapeth, + With a burdened, bashful yearning, + For the babe's weight on her knee, + For the loving lisp of glee, + Sweet as larks' throats in the morning, + Sweet as hum of honey-bee. + + "O my child!" cries Mona's mother, + "Will you, can you take another + Name ere mine upon your lips? + Can you, only for the asking, + Give to other hands the clasping + Of your rosy finger-tips?" + + Fear on fear her sad soul borrows,-- + O the dews are falling fair! + But no fair thing now can move her; + Vainly walks the moon above her, + Turning out her golden furrows + On the cloudy fields of air. + + Sudden she is 'ware of shadows, + Coming in across the meadows, + And of murmurs, low as love,-- + Murmurs mingled like the meeting + Of the winds, or like the beating + Of the wings of dove with dove. + + In her hand the slow wheel stoppeth, + Silken flax from distaff droppeth, + And a cruel, killing pain + Striketh up from heart to brain; + And she knoweth by that token + That the spinning all is vain, + That the troth-plight has been spoken, + And the thread of life thus broken + Never can be joined again. + + + + +AT PADUA. + + +I. + +Those of my readers who have frequented the garden of Doctor Rappaccini +no doubt recall with perfect distinctness the quaint old city of Padua. +They remember its miles and miles of dim arcade over-roofing the +sidewalks everywhere, affording excellent opportunity for the flirtation +of lovers by day and the vengeance of rivals by night. They have seen +the now vacant streets thronged with maskers, and the Venetian Podesta +going in gorgeous state to and from the vast Palazzo della Ragione. They +have witnessed ringing tournaments in those sad, empty squares, and +races in the Prato della Valle, and many other wonders of different +epochs, and their pleasure makes me half sorry that I should have lived +for several years within an hour by rail from Padua, and should know +little or nothing of these great sights from actual observation. I take +shame to myself for having visited Padua so often and so familiarly as I +used to do,--for having been bored and hungry there,--for having had +toothache there, upon one occasion,--for having rejoiced more in a cup +of coffee at Pedrocchi's than in the whole history of Padua,--for having +slept repeatedly in the bad-bedded hotels of Padua and never once dreamt +of Portia,--for having been more taken by the _salti mortali_[A] of a +waiter who summed up my account at a Paduan restaurant, than by all the +strategies with which the city has been many times captured and +recaptured. Had I viewed Padua only over the wall of Doctor Rappaccini's +garden, how different my impressions of the city would now be! This is +one of the drawbacks of actual knowledge. + +"Ah! how can you write about Spain when once you have been there?" asked +Heine of Theophile Gautier setting out on a journey thither. + +Nevertheless it seems to me that I remember something about Padua with a +sort of romantic pleasure. There was a certain charm which I can dimly +recall, in sauntering along the top of the old wall of the city, and +looking down upon the plumy crests of the Indian-corn that nourished up +so mightily from the dry bed of the moat. At such times I could not help +figuring to myself the many sieges that the wall had known, with the +fierce assault by day, the secret attack by night, the swarming foe upon +the plains below, the bristling arms of the besieged upon the wall, the +boom of the great mortars made of ropes and leather and throwing mighty +balls of stone, the stormy flight of arrows, the ladders planted against +the defences and staggering headlong into the moat, enriched for future +agriculture not only by its sluggish waters, but by the blood of many +men. I suppose that most of these visions were old stage spectacles +furbished up anew, and that my armies were chiefly equipped with their +obsolete implements of warfare from museums of armor and from cabinets +of antiquities; but they were very vivid, for all that. + +I was never able, in passing a certain one of the city gates, to divest +myself of an historic interest in the great loads of hay waiting +admission on the outside. For an instant they masked again the Venetian +troops that, in the war of the League of Cambray, entered the city in +the hay-carts, shot down the landsknechts at the gates, and, uniting +with the citizens, cut the German garrison to pieces. But it was a thing +long past. The German garrison was here again; and the heirs of the +landsknechts went clanking through the gate to the parade-ground, with +that fierce clamor of their kettle-drums which is so much fiercer +because unmingled with the noise of fifes. Once more now the Germans are +gone, and, let us trust, forever; but when I saw them, there seemed +little hope of their going. They had a great Biergarten on the top of +the wall, and they had set up the altars of their heavy Bacchus in many +parts of the city. + +I please myself with thinking that, if I walked on such a spring day as +this in the arcaded Paduan streets, I should catch glimpses, through the +gateways of the palaces, of gardens full of vivid bloom, and of +fountains that tinkle there forever. If it were autumn, and I were in +the great market-place before the Palazzo della Ragione, I should hear +the baskets of amber-hued and honeyed grapes humming with the murmur of +multitudinous bees, and making a music as if the wine itself were +already singing in their gentle hearts. It is a great field of succulent +verdure, that wide old market-place; and fancy loves to browse about +among its gay stores of fruits and vegetables, brought thither by the +world-old peasant-women who have been bringing fruits and vegetables to +the Paduan market for so many centuries. They sit upon the ground before +their great panniers, and knit and doze, and wake up with a drowsy +"_Comandala?_" as you linger to look at their grapes. They have each a +pair of scales,--the emblem of Injustice,--and will weigh you out a +scant measure of the fruit, if you like. Their faces are yellow as +parchment, and Time has written them so full of wrinkles that there is +not room for another line. Doubtless these old parchment visages are +palimpsests, and would tell the whole history of Padua if you could get +at each successive inscription. Among their primal records there must be +some account of the Roman city, as each little contadinella, remembered +it on market-days; and one might read of the terror of Attila's sack, a +little later, with the peasant-maid's personal recollections of the bold +Hunnish trooper who ate up the grapes in her basket, and kissed her +hard, round red cheeks,--for in that time she was a blooming girl,--and +paid nothing for either privilege. What wild and confused reminiscences +on the wrinkled visage we should find thereafter of the fierce +republican times, of Ecelino, of the Carraras, of the Venetian rule! And +is it not sad to think of systems and peoples all passing away, and +these ancient women lasting still, and still selling grapes in front of +the Palazzo della Ragione? What a long mortality! + +The youngest of their number is a thousand years older than the palace, +which was begun in the twelfth century, and which is much the same now +as it was when first completed. I know that, if I entered it, I should +be sure of finding the great hall of the palace--the vastest hall in the +world--dim and dull and dusty and delightful, with nothing in it except +at one end Donatello's colossal marble-headed wooden horse of Troy, +stared at from the other end by the two dog-faced Egyptian women in +basalt placed there by Belzoni. + +Late in the drowsy summer afternoons I should have the Court of the +University all to myself, and might study unmolested the blazons of the +noble youth who have attended the school in different centuries ever +since 1200, and have left their escutcheons on the walls to commemorate +them. At the foot of the stairway ascending to the schools from the +court is the statue of the learned lady who was once a professor in the +University, and who, if her likeness belie not her looks, must have +given a great charm to student life in other times. At present there are +no lady professors at Padua, any more than at Harvard; and during late +years the schools have suffered greatly from the interference of the +Austrian government, which frequently closed them for months, on account +of political demonstrations among the students. But now there is an end +of this and many other stupid oppressions; and the time-honored +University will doubtless regain its ancient importance. Even in 1864 it +had nearly fifteen hundred students, and one met them everywhere under +the arcades, and could not well mistake them, with that blended air of +pirate and dandy which these studious young men loved to assume. They +were to be seen a good deal on the promenades outside the walls, where +the Paduan ladies are driven in their carriages in the afternoon, and +where one sees the blood-horses and fine equipages for which Padua is +famous. There used once to be races in the Prato della Valle, after the +Italian notion of horse-races; but these are now discontinued, and there +is nothing to be found there but the statues of scholars and soldiers +and statesmen, posted in a circle around the old race-course. If you +strolled thither about dusk on such a day as this, you might see the +statues unbend a little from their stony rigidity, and in the failing +light nod to each other very pleasantly through the trees. And if you +stayed in Padua over night, what could be better to-morrow morning than +a stroll through the great Botanical Garden,--the oldest botanical +garden in the world,--the garden which first received in Europe the +strange and splendid growths of our hemisphere,--the garden where Doctor +Rappaccini doubtless found the germ of his mortal plant? + +On the whole, I believe I would rather go this moment to Padua than to +Lowell or Lawrence, or even to Worcester; and as to the disadvantage of +having seen Padua, I begin to think the whole place has now assumed so +fantastic a character in my mind that I am almost as well qualified to +write of it as if I had merely dreamed it. + +The day that we first visited the city was very rainy, and we spent most +of the time in viewing the churches. These, even after the churches of +Venice, one finds rich in art and historic interest, and they in no +instance fall into the maniacal excesses of the Renaissance to which +some of the temples of the latter city abandon themselves. Their +architecture forms a sort of border-land between the Byzantine of Venice +and the Lombardic of Verona. The superb domes of St. Anthony's emulate +those of St. Mark's, and the porticos of other Paduan churches rest +upon the backs of bird-headed lions and leopards that fascinate with +their mystery and beauty. + +It was the wish to see the attributive Giottos in the Chapter which drew +us first to St. Anthony's, and we saw them with the satisfaction +naturally attending the contemplation of frescos discovered only since +1858, after having been hidden under plaster and whitewash for many +centuries; but we could not believe that Giotto's fame was destined to +gain much by their rescue from oblivion. They are in no wise to be +compared with this master's frescos in the Chapel of the +Annunziata,--which, indeed, is in every way a place of wonder and +delight. You reach it by passing through a garden lane bordered with +roses, and a taciturn gardener comes out with clinking keys, and lets +you into the chapel, where there is nobody but Giotto and Dante, nor +seems to have been for ages. Cool it is, and of a pulverous smell, as a +sacred place should be; a blessed benching goes round the wall, and you +sit down and take unlimited comfort in the frescos. The gardener leaves +you alone to the solitude and the silence, in which the talk of the +painter and the exile is plain enough. Their contemporaries and yours +are cordial in their gay companionship; through the half-open door +falls, in a pause of the rain, the same sunshine that they saw lie +there; the deathless birds that they heard sing out in the garden trees; +it is the fresh sweetness of the grass mown six hundred years ago that +breathes through all the lovely garden grounds. + +How mistaken was Ponce de Leon, to seek the fountain of youth in the New +World! It is there,--in the Old World,--far back in the past. We are all +old men and decrepit together in the present; the future is full of +death; in the past we are light and glad as boys turned barefoot in the +spring. The work of the heroes is play to us; the pang of the martyr is +a thrill of rapture; the exile's longing is a strain of plaintive music +touching and delighting us. We are not only young again, we are +immortal. It is this divine sense of superiority to fate which is the +supreme good won from travel in historic lands, and from the presence of +memorable things, and which no sublimity of natural aspects can bestow. +It is this which forms the wide difference between Europe and +America,--a gulf that it will take a thousand years to bridge. + +It is a shame that the immortals should be limited in their pleasures by +the fact that they have hired their brougham by the hour; yet we early +quit the Chapel of Giotto on this account. We had chosen our driver from +among many other drivers of broughams in the vicinity of Pedrocchi's, +because he had such an honest look, and was not likely, we thought, to +deal unfairly with us. + +"But first," said the signor who had selected him, "how much is your +brougham an hour?" + +So and so. + +"Show me the tariff of fares." + +"There is no tariff." + +"There is. Show it to me." + +"It is lost, signor." + +"I think not. It is here in this pocket Get it out." + +The tariff appears, and with it the fact that he had demanded just what +the boatman of the ballad received in gift,--thrice his fee. + +The driver mounted his seat, and served us so faithfully that day in +Padua that we took him the next day for Arqua. At the end, when he had +received his due, and a handsome _mancia_ besides, he was still +unsatisfied, and referred to the tariff in proof that he had been +under-paid. On that confronted and defeated, he thanked us very +cordially, gave us the number of his brougham, and begged us to ask for +him when we came next to Padua and needed a carriage. + +From the Chapel of the Annunziata he drove us to the Church of Santa +Giustina, where is a very famous and noble picture by Romanino. But as +this paper has nothing in the world to do with art, I here dismiss that +subject, and with a gross and idle delight follow the sacristan down +under this church to the prison of Santa Giustina. + +Of all the faculties of the mind there is none so little fatiguing to +exercise as mere wonder; and, for my own sake, I try always to wonder at +things without the least critical reservation. I therefore, in the sense +of deglutition, bolted this prison at once, though subsequent +experiences led me to look with grave indigestion upon the whole idea of +prisons, their authenticity, and even their existence. + +As far as mere dimensions are concerned, the prison of Santa Giustina +was not a hard one to swallow, being only three feet wide by about ten +feet in length. In this limited space, Santa Giustina passed five years +of the paternal reign of Nero (a virtuous and a long-suffering prince, +whom, singularly enough, no historic artist has yet arisen to +whitewash), and was then brought out into the larger cell adjoining, to +suffer a blessed martyrdom. I am not sure now whether the sacristan said +she was dashed to death on the stones, or cut to pieces with knives; but +whatever the form of martyrdom, an iron ring in the ceiling was employed +in it, as I know from seeing the ring,--a curiously well-preserved piece +of ironmongery. Within the narrow prison of the saint, and just under +the grating, through which the sacristan thrust his candle to illuminate +it, was a mountain of candle-drippings,--a monument to the fact that +faith still largely exists in this doubting world. My own credulity, not +only with regard to this prison, but also touching the coffin of St. +Luke, which I saw in the church, had so wrought upon the esteem of the +sacristan, that he now took me to a well, into which, he said, had been +cast the bones of three thousand Christian martyrs. He lowered a lantern +into the well, and assured me that, if I looked through a certain +screenwork there, I could see the bones. On experiment I could not see +the bones, but this circumstance did not cause me to doubt their +presence, particularly as I did see upon the screen a great number of +coins offered for the repose of the martyrs' souls. I threw down some +_soldi_, and thus enthralled the sacristan. + +If the signor cared to see prisons, he said, the driver must take him to +those of Ecelino, at present the property of a private gentleman near +by. As I had just bought a history of Ecelino, at a great bargain, from +a second-hand bookstall, and had a lively interest in all the enormities +of that nobleman, I sped the driver instantly to the villa of the Signor +Pacchiarotti. + +It depends here altogether upon the freshness or mustiness of the +reader's historical reading whether he cares to be reminded more +particularly who Ecelino was. He flourished balefully in the early half +of the thirteenth century as lord of Vicenza, Verona, Padua, and +Brescia, and was defeated and hurt to death in an attempt to possess +himself of Milan. He was in every respect a remarkable man for that +time,--fearless, abstemious, continent, avaricious, hardy, and +unspeakably ambitious and cruel. He survived and suppressed innumerable +conspiracies, escaping even the thrust of the assassin whom the fame of +his enormous wickedness had caused the Old Man of the Mountain to send +against him. As lord of Padua he was more incredibly severe and bloody +in his rule than as lord of the other cities, for the Paduans had been +latest free, and conspired most frequently against him. He extirpated +whole families on suspicion that a single member had been concerned in a +meditated revolt. Little children and helpless women suffered hideous +mutilation and shame at his hands. Six prisons in Padua were constantly +filled by his arrests. The whole country was traversed by witnesses of +his cruelties,--men and women deprived of an arm or leg, and begging +from door to door. He had long been excommunicated; at last the Church +proclaimed a crusade against him, and his lieutenant and nephew--more +demoniacal, if possible, than himself--was driven out of Padua while he +was operating against Mantua. Ecelino retired to Verona, and maintained +a struggle against the crusade for nearly two years longer, with a +courage which never failed him. Wounded and taken prisoner, the soldiers +of the victorious army gathered about him, and heaped insult and +reproach upon him; and one furious peasant, whose brother's feet had +been cut off by Ecelino's command, dealt the helpless monster four blows +upon the head with a scythe. By some, Ecelino is said to have died of +these wounds alone; but by others it is related that his death was a +kind of suicide, inasmuch as he himself put the case past surgery by +tearing off the bandages from his hurts, and refusing all medicines. + + +II. + +Entering at the enchanted portal of the Villa P----, we found ourselves +in a realm of wonder. It was our misfortune not to see the magician who +compelled all the marvels on which we looked, but for that very reason, +perhaps, we have the clearest sense of his greatness. Everywhere we +beheld the evidences of his ingenious but lugubrious fancy, which +everywhere tended to a monumental and mortuary effect. A sort of +vestibule first received us, and beyond this dripped and glimmered the +garden. The walls of the vestibule were covered with inscriptions +setting forth the sentiments of the philosophy and piety of all ages +concerning life and death; we began with Confucius, and we ended with +Benjamino Franklino. But as if these ideas of mortality were not +sufficiently depressing, the funereal Signor P----had collected into +earthern _amphorae_ the ashes of the most famous men of ancient and +modern times, and arranged them so that a sense of their number and +variety should at once strike his visitor. Each jar was conspicuously +labelled with the name its illustrious dust had borne in life; and if +one escaped with comparative cheerfulness from the thought that Seneca +had died, there were in the very next pot the cinders of Napoleon to +bully him back to a sense of his mortality. + +We were glad to have the gloomy fascination of these objects broken by +the custodian, who approached to ask if we wished to see the prisons of +Ecelino, and we willingly followed him into the rain out of our +sepulchral shelter. + +Between the vestibule and the towers of the tyrant lay that garden +already mentioned, and our guide led us through ranks of weeping +statuary, and rainy bowers, and showery lanes of shrubbery, until we +reached the door of his cottage. While he entered to fetch the key to +the prisons, we noted that the towers were freshly painted and in +perfect repair; and indeed the custodian said frankly enough, on +reappearing, that they were merely built over the prisons on the site of +the original towers. The storied stream of the Bacchiglione sweeps +through the grounds, and now, swollen by the rainfall, it roared, a +yellow torrent, under a corner of the prisons. The towers rise from +masses of foliage, and form no unpleasing feature of what must be, in +spite of Signor P----, a delightful Italian garden in sunny weather. The +ground is not so flat as elsewhere in Padua, and this inequality gives +an additional picturesqueness to the place. But as we were come in +search of horrors, we scorned these merely lovely things, and hastened +to immure ourselves in the dungeons below. The custodian, lighting a +candle, (which ought, we felt, to have been a torch,) went before. + +We found the cells, though narrow and dark, not uncomfortable, and the +guide conceded that they had undergone some repairs since Ecelino's +time. But all the horrors for which we had come were there in perfect +grisliness, and labelled by the ingenious Signor P---- with Latin +inscriptions. + +In the first cell was a shrine of the Virgin, set in the wall. Beneath +this, while the wretched prisoner knelt in prayer, a trap-door opened +and precipitated him down upon the points of knives, from which his body +fell into the Bacchiglione below. In the next cell, held by some rusty +iron rings to the wall, was a skeleton, hanging by the wrists. + +"This," said the guide, "was another punishment of which Ecelino was +very fond." + +A dreadful doubt seized my mind. "Was this skeleton found here?" I +demanded. + +Without faltering an instant, without so much as winking an eye, the +custodian replied, "_Appunto_." + +It was a great relief, and restored me to confidence in the +establishment. I am at a loss to explain how my faith should have been +confirmed afterwards by coming upon a guillotine--an awful instrument in +the likeness of a straw-cutter, with a decapitated wooden figure under +its blade--which the custodian confessed to be a modern improvement +placed there by Signor P----. Yet my credulity was so strengthened by +his candor, that I accepted without hesitation the torture of the +water-drop when we came to it. The water-jar was as well preserved as if +placed there but yesterday, and the skeleton beneath it--found as we saw +it--was entire and perfect. + +In the adjoining cell sat a skeleton--found as we saw it--with its neck +in the clutch of the garrote, which was one of Ecelino's more merciful +punishments; while in still another cell the ferocity of the tyrant +appeared in the penalty inflicted upon the wretch whose skeleton had +been hanging for ages--as we saw it--head downwards from the ceiling. + +Beyond these, in a yet darker and drearier dungeon, stood a heavy oblong +wooden box, with two apertures near the top, peering through which we +found that we were looking into the eyeless sockets of a skull. Within +this box Ecelino had immured the victim we beheld there, and left him to +perish in view of the platters of food and goblets of drink placed just +beyond the reach of his hands. The food we saw was of course not the +original food. + +At last we came to the crowning horror of Villa P----, the supreme +excess of Ecelino's cruelty. The guide entered the cell before us, and, +as we gained the threshold, threw the light of his taper vividly upon a +block that stood in the middle of the floor. Fixed to the block by an +immense spike driven through from the back was the little slender hand +of a woman, which lay there just as it had been struck from the living +arm, and which, after the lapse of so many centuries, was still as +perfectly preserved as if it had been embalmed. The sight had a most +cruel fascination; and while one of the horror-seekers stood helplessly +conjuring to his vision that scene of unknown dread,--the shrinking, +shrieking woman dragged to the block, the wild, shrill, horrible screech +following the blow that drove in the spike, the merciful swoon after the +mutilation,--his companion, with a sudden pallor, demanded to be taken +instantly away. + +In their swift withdrawal, they only glanced at a few detached +instruments of torture,--all original Ecelinos, but intended for the +infliction of minor and comparatively unimportant torments,--and then +they passed from that place of fear. + + +III. + +In the evening we sat talking at the Caffe Pedrocchi with an abbate, an +acquaintance of ours, who was a Professor in the University of Padua. +Pedrocchi's is the great caffe of Padua, a granite edifice of Egyptian +architecture, which is the mausoleum of the proprietor's fortune. The +pecuniary skeleton at the feast, however, does not much trouble the +guests. They begin early in the evening to gather into the elegant +saloons of the caffe,--somewhat too large for so small a city as +Padua,--and they sit there late in the night over their cheerful cups +and their ices with their newspaper and their talk. Not so many ladies +are to be seen as at the caffe in Venice, for it is only in the greater +cities that they go much to these public places. There are few students +at Pedrocchi's, for they frequent the cheaper caffe; but you may nearly +always find there some Professor of the University, and on the evening +of which I speak, there were two present besides our abbate. Our +friend's great passion was the English language, which he understood too +well to venture to speak a great deal. He had been translating from that +tongue into Italian certain American poems, and our talk was of these at +first. Then we began to talk of distinguished American writers, of whom +intelligent Italians always know at least four, in this +succession,--Cooper, Mrs. Stowe, Longfellow, and Irving. Mrs. Stowe's +_Capanna di Zio Tom_ is, of course, universally read; and my friend had +also read _Il Fiore di Maggio_,--"The Mayflower." Of Longfellow, the +"Evangeline" is familiar to Italians, through a translation of the poem; +but our abbate knew all the poet's works, and one of the other +Professors present that evening had made such faithful study of them as +to have produced some translations rendering the original with +remarkable fidelity and spirit. I have before me here his _brochure_, +printed last year at Padua, and containing versions of "Enceladus," +"Excelsior," "A Psalm of Life," "The Old Clock on the Stairs," "Sand of +the Desert in an Hour-Glass," "Twilight," "Daybreak," "The Quadroon +Girl," and "Torquemada,"--pieces which give the Italians a fair notion +of our poet's lyrical range, and which bear witness to Professor +Messadaglia's sympathetic and familiar knowledge of his works. A young +and gifted lady of Parma, now unhappily no more, published only a few +months since a translation of "The Golden Legend"; and Professor +Messadaglia, in his Preface, mentions a version of another of our poet's +longer works on which the translator of the "Evangeline" is now engaged. + +At last, turning from literature, we spoke with the gentle abbate of +our day's adventures, and eagerly related that of the Ecelino prisons. +To have seen them was the most terrific pleasure of our lives. + +"Eh!" said our friend, "I believe you." + +"We mean those under the Villa P----." + +"Exactly." + +There was a tone of politely suppressed amusement in the abbate's voice; +and after a moment's pause, in which we felt our awful experience +slipping and sliding away from us, we ventured to say, "You don't mean +that those are _not_ the veritable Ecelino prisons?" + +"Certainly they are nothing of the kind. The Ecelino prisons were +destroyed when the Crusaders took Padua, with the exception of the tower +which the Venetian Republic converted into an observatory." + +"But at least these prisons are on the site of Ecelino's castle?" + +"Nothing of the sort. His castle in that case would have been outside of +the old city walls." + +"And those tortures and the prisons are all--" + +"Things got up for show. No doubt, Ecelino used such things, and many +worse, of which even the ingenuity of Signor P---- cannot conceive. But +he is an eccentric man, loving the horrors of history, and what he can +do to realize them he has done in his prisons." + +"But the custodian, how could he lie so?" + +Our friend shrugged his shoulders. "Eh! easily. And perhaps he even +believed what he said." + +The world began to assume an aspect of bewildering ungenuineness, and +there seemed to be a treacherous quality of fiction in the ground under +our feet. Even the play at the pretty little Teatro Sociale, where we +went to pass the rest of the evening, appeared hollow and improbable. We +thought the hero something of a bore, with his patience and goodness; +and as for the heroine, pursued by the attentions of the rich +profligate, we doubted if she were any better than she should be. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote A: _Salti mortali_ are those prodigious efforts of mental +arithmetic by which Italian waiters, in verbally presenting your +account, arrive at six as the product of two and two.] + + + + +POOR RICHARD. + +A STORY IN THREE PARTS. + + +PART II. + +Richard got through the following week he hardly knew how. He found +occupation, to a much greater extent than he was actually aware of, in a +sordid and yet heroic struggle with himself. For several months now, he +had been leading, under Gertrude's inspiration, a strictly decent and +sober life. So long as he was at comparative peace with Gertrude and +with himself, such a life was more than easy; it was delightful. It +produced a moral buoyancy infinitely more delicate and more constant +than the gross exhilaration of his old habits. There was a kind of +fascination in adding hour to hour, and day to day, in this record of +his new-born austerity. Having abjured excesses, he practised temperance +after the fashion of a novice: he raised it (or reduced it) to +abstinence. He was like an unclean man who, having washed himself clean, +remains in the water for the love of it. He wished to be religiously, +superstitiously pure. This was easy, as we have said, so long as his +goddess smiled, even though it were as a goddess indeed,--as a creature +unattainable. But when she frowned, and the heavens grew dark, Richard's +sole dependence was in his own will,--as flimsy a trust for an upward +scramble, one would have premised, as a tuft of grass on the face of a +perpendicular cliff. Flimsy as it looked, however, it served him. It +started and crumbled, but it held, if only by a single fibre. When +Richard had cantered fifty yards away from Gertrude's gate in a fit of +stupid rage, he suddenly pulled up his horse and gulped down his +passion, and swore an oath, that, suffer what torments of feeling he +might, he would not at least break the continuity of his gross physical +soberness. It was enough to be drunk in mind; he would not be drunk in +body. A singular, almost ridiculous feeling of antagonism to Gertrude +lent force to this resolution. "No, madam," he cried within himself, "I +shall _not_ fall back. Do your best! I shall keep straight." We often +outweather great offences and afflictions through a certain healthy +instinct of egotism. Richard went to bed that night as grim and sober as +a Trappist monk; and his foremost impulse the next day was to plunge +headlong into some physical labor which should not allow him a moment's +interval of idleness. He found no labor to his taste; but he spent the +day so actively, in the mechanical annihilation of the successive hours, +that Gertrude's image found no chance squarely to face him. He was +engaged in the work of self-preservation,--the most serious and +absorbing work possible to man. Compared to the results here at stake, +his passion for Gertrude seemed but a fiction. It is perhaps difficult +to give a more lively impression of the vigor of this passion, of its +maturity and its strength, than by simply stating that it discreetly +held itself in abeyance until Richard had set at rest his doubts of that +which lies nearer than all else to the heart of man,--his doubts of the +strength of his will. He answered these doubts by subjecting his +resolution to a course of such cruel temptations as were likely either +to shiver it to a myriad of pieces, or to season it perfectly to all the +possible requirements of life. He took long rides over the country, +passing within a stone's throw of as many of the scattered wayside +taverns as could be combined in a single circuit. As he drew near them +he sometimes slackened his pace, as if he were about to dismount, pulled +up his horse, gazed a moment, then, thrusting in his spurs, galloped +away again like one pursued. At other times; in the late evening, when +the window-panes were aglow with the ruddy light within, he would walk +slowly by, looking at the stars, and, after maintaining this stoical +pace for a couple of miles, would hurry home to his own lonely and +black-windowed dwelling. Having successfully performed this feat a +certain number of times, he found his love coming back to him, bereft in +the interval of its attendant jealousy. In obedience to it, he one +morning leaped upon his horse and repaired to Gertrude's abode, with no +definite notion of the terms in which he should introduce himself. + +He had made himself comparatively sure of his will; but he was yet to +acquire the mastery of his impulses. As he gave up his horse, according +to his wont, to one of the men at the stable, he saw another steed +stalled there which he recognized as Captain Severn's. "Steady, my boy," +he murmured to himself, as he would have done to a frightened horse. On +his way across the broad court-yard toward the house, he encountered the +Captain, who had just taken his leave. Richard gave him a generous +salute (he could not trust himself to more), and Severn answered with +what was at least a strictly just one. Richard observed, however, that +he was very pale, and that he was pulling a rosebud to pieces as he +walked; whereupon our young man quickened his step. Finding the parlor +empty, he instinctively crossed over to a small room adjoining it, which +Gertrude had converted into a modest conservatory; and as he did so, +hardly knowing it, he lightened his heavy-shod tread. The glass door was +open and Richard looked in. There stood Gertrude with her back to him, +bending apart with her hands a couple of tall flowering plants, and +looking through the glazed partition behind them. Advancing a step, and +glancing over the young girl's shoulder, Richard had just time to see +Severn mounting his horse at the stable door, before Gertrude, startled +by his approach, turned hastily round. Her face was flushed hot, and her +eyes brimming with tears. + +"You!" she exclaimed, sharply. + +Richard's head swam. That single word was so charged with cordial +impatience that it seemed the death-knell of his hope. He stepped inside +the room and closed the door, keeping his hand on the knob. + +"Gertrude," he said, "you love that man!" + +"Well, sir?" + +"Do you confess it?" cried Richard. + +"Confess it? Richard Clare, how dare you use such language? I'm in no +humor for a scene. Let me pass." + +Gertrude was angry; but as for Richard, it may almost be said that he +was mad. "One scene a day is enough, I suppose," he cried. "What are +these tears about? Wouldn't he have you? Did he refuse you, as you +refused me? Poor Gertrude!" + +Gertrude looked at him a moment with concentrated scorn. "You fool!" she +said, for all answer. She pushed his hand from the latch, flung open the +door, and moved rapidly away. + +Left alone, Richard sank down on a sofa and covered his face with his +hands. It burned them, but he sat motionless, repeating to himself, +mechanically, as if to avert thought, "You fool! you fool!" At last he +got up and made his way out. + +It seemed to Gertrude, for several hours after this scene, that she had +at this juncture a strong case against Fortune. It is not our purpose to +repeat the words which she had exchanged with Captain Severn. They had +come within a single step of an _eclaircissement_, and when but another +movement would have flooded their souls with light, some malignant +influence had seized them by the throats. Had they too much pride?--too +little imagination? We must content ourselves with this hypothesis. +Severn, then, had walked mechanically across the yard, saying to +himself, "She belongs to another"; and adding, as he saw Richard, "and +such another!" Gertrude had stood at her window, repeating, under her +breath, "He belongs to himself, himself alone." And as if this was not +enough, when misconceived, slighted, wounded, she had faced about to her +old, passionless, dutiful past, there on the path of retreat to this +asylum Richard Clare had arisen to forewarn her that she should find no +peace even at home. There was something in the violent impertinence of +his appearance at this moment which gave her a dreadful feeling that +fate was against her. More than this. There entered into her emotions a +certain minute particle of awe of the man whose passion was so +uncompromising. She felt that it was out of place any longer to pity +him. He was the slave of his passion; but his passion was strong. In her +reaction against the splendid civility of Severn's silence, (the real +antithesis of which would have been simply the perfect courtesy of +explicit devotion,) she found herself touching with pleasure on the fact +of Richard's brutality. He at least had ventured to insult her. He had +loved her enough to forget himself. He had dared to make himself odious +in her eyes, because he had cast away his sanity. What cared he for the +impression he made? He cared only for the impression he received. The +violence of this reaction, however, was the measure of its duration. It +was impossible that she should walk backward so fast without stumbling. +Brought to her senses by this accident, she became aware that her +judgment was missing. She smiled to herself as she reflected that it had +been taking holiday for a whole afternoon. "Richard was right," she said +to herself. "I am no fool. I can't be a fool if I try. I'm too +thoroughly my father's daughter for that. I love that man, but I love +myself better. Of course, then, I don't deserve to have him. If I loved +him in a way to merit his love, I would sit down this moment and write +him a note telling him that if he does not come back to me, I shall die. +But I shall neither write the note nor die. I shall live and grow stout, +and look after my chickens and my flowers and my colts, and thank the +Lord in my old age that I have never done anything unwomanly. Well! I'm +as He made me. Whether I can deceive others, I know not; but I certainly +can't deceive myself. I'm quite as sharp as Gertrude Whittaker; and this +it is that has kept me from making a fool of myself and writing to poor +Richard the note that I wouldn't write to Captain Severn. I needed to +fancy myself wronged. I suffer so little! I needed a sensation! So, +shrewd Yankee that I am, I thought I would get one cheaply by taking up +that unhappy boy! Heaven preserve me from the heroics, especially the +economical heroics! The one heroic course possible, I decline. What, +then, have I to complain of? Must I tear my hair because a man of taste +has resisted my unspeakable charms? To be charming, you must be charmed +yourself, or at least you must be able to be charmed; and that +apparently I'm not. I didn't love him, or he would have known it. Love +gets love, and no-love gets none." + +But at this point of her meditations Gertrude almost broke down. She +felt that she was assigning herself but a dreary future. Never to be +loved but by such a one as Richard Clare was a cheerless prospect; for +it was identical with an eternal spinsterhood. "Am I, then," she +exclaimed, quite as passionately as a woman need do,--"am I, then, cut +off from a woman's dearest joys? What blasphemous nonsense! One thing is +plain: I am made to be a mother; the wife may take care of herself. I am +made to be a wife; the mistress may take care of _her_self. I am in the +Lord's hands," added the poor girl, who, whether or no she could forget +herself in an earthly love, had at all events this mark of a spontaneous +nature, that she could forget herself in a heavenly one. But in the +midst of her pious emotion, she was unable to subdue her conscience. It +smote her heavily for her meditated falsity to Richard, for her +miserable readiness to succumb to the strong temptation to seek a +momentary resting-place in his gaping heart. She recoiled from this +thought as from an act cruel and immoral. Was Richard's heart the place +for her now, any more than it had been a month before? Was she to apply +for comfort where she would not apply for counsel? Was she to drown her +decent sorrows and regrets in a base, a dishonest, an extemporized +passion? Having done the young man so bitter a wrong in intention, +nothing would appease her magnanimous remorse (as time went on) but to +repair it in fact. She went so far as keenly to regret the harsh words +she had cast upon him in the conservatory. He had been insolent and +unmannerly; but he had an excuse. Much should be forgiven him, for he +loved much. Even now that Gertrude had imposed upon her feelings a +sterner regimen than ever, she could not defend herself from a sweet and +sentimental thrill--a thrill in which, as we have intimated, there was +something of a tremor--at the recollection of his strident accents and +his angry eyes. It was yet far from her heart to desire a renewal, +however brief, of this exhibition. She wished simply to efface from the +young man's morbid soul the impression of a real contempt; for she +knew--or she thought that she knew--that against such an impression he +was capable of taking the most fatal and inconsiderate comfort. + +Before many mornings had passed, accordingly, she had a horse saddled, +and, dispensing with attendance, she rode rapidly over to his farm. The +house door and half the windows stood open; but no answer came to her +repeated summons. She made her way to the rear of the house, to the +barn-yard, thinly tenanted by a few common fowl, and across the yard to +a road which skirted its lower extremity and was accessible by an open +gate. No human figure was in sight; nothing was visible in the hot +stillness but the scattered and ripening crops, over which, in spite of +her nervous solicitude, Miss Whittaker cast the glance of a connoisseur. +A great uneasiness filled her mind as she measured the rich domain +apparently deserted of its young master, and reflected that she perhaps +was the cause of its abandonment. Ah, where was Richard? As she looked +and listened in vain, her heart rose to her throat, and she felt herself +on the point of calling all too wistfully upon his name. But her voice +was stayed by the sound of a heavy rumble, as of cart-wheels, beyond a +turn in the road. She touched up her horse and cantered along until she +reached the turn. A great four-wheeled cart, laden with masses of newly +broken stone, and drawn by four oxen, was slowly advancing towards her. +Beside it, patiently cracking his whip and shouting monotonously, walked +a young man in a slouched hat and a red shirt, with his trousers thrust +into his dusty boots. It was Richard. As he saw Gertrude, he halted a +moment, amazed, and then advanced, flicking the air with his whip. +Gertrude's heart went out towards him in a silent Thank God! Her next +reflection was that he had never looked so well. The truth is, that, in +this rough adjustment, the native barbarian was duly represented. His +face and neck were browned by a week in the fields, his eye was clear, +his step seemed to have learned a certain manly dignity from its +attendance on the heavy bestial tramp. Gertrude, as he reached her side, +pulled up her horse and held out her gloved fingers to his brown dusty +hand. He took them, looked for a moment into her face, and for the +second time raised them to his lips. + +"Excuse my glove," she said, with a little smile. + +"Excuse mine," he answered, exhibiting his sunburnt, work-stained hand. + +"Richard," said Gertrude, "you never had less need of excuse in your +life. You never looked half so well." + +He fixed his eyes upon her a moment. "Why, you have forgiven me!" he +exclaimed. + +"Yes," said Gertrude, "I have forgiven you,--both you and myself. We +both of us behaved very absurdly, but we both of us had reason. I wish +you had come back." + +Richard looked about him, apparently at loss for a rejoinder. "I have +been very busy," he said, at last, with a simplicity of tone slightly +studied. An odd sense of dramatic effect prompted him to say neither +more nor less. + +An equally delicate instinct forbade Gertrude to express all the joy +which this assurance gave her. Excessive joy would have implied undue +surprise; and it was a part of her plan frankly to expect the best +things of her companion. "If you have been busy," she said, "I +congratulate you. What have you been doing?" + +"O, a hundred things. I have been quarrying, and draining, and clearing, +and I don't know what all. I thought the best thing was just to put my +own hands to it. I am going to make a stone fence along the great lot on +the hill there. Wallace is forever grumbling about his boundaries. I'll +fix them once for all. What are you laughing at?" + +"I am laughing at certain foolish apprehensions that I have been +indulging for a week past. You're wiser than I, Richard. I have no +imagination." + +"Do you mean that _I_ have? I haven't enough to guess what you _do_ +mean." + +"Why, do you suppose, have I come over this morning?" + +"Because you thought I was sulking on account of your having called me a +fool." + +"Sulking, or worse. What do I deserve for the wrong I have done you?" + +"You have done me no wrong. You reasoned fairly enough. You are not +obliged to know me better than I know myself. It's just like you to be +ready to take back that bad word, and try to make yourself believe that +it was unjust. But it was perfectly just, and therefore I have managed +to bear it. I _was_ a fool at that moment,--a stupid, impudent fool. I +don't know whether that man had been making love to you or not. But you +had, I think, been feeling love for him,--you looked it; I should have +been less than a man, I should be unworthy of your--your affection, if I +had failed to see it. I did see it,--I saw it as clearly as I see those +oxen now; and yet I bounced in with my own ill-timed claims. To do so +was to be a fool. To have been other than a fool would have been to have +waited, to have backed out, to have bitten my tongue off before I spoke, +to have done anything but what I did. I have no right to claim you, +Gertrude, until I can woo you better than that. It was the most +fortunate thing in the world that you spoke as you did: it was even +kind. It saved me all the misery of groping about for a starting-point. +Not to have spoken as you did would have been to fail of justice; and +then, probably, I should have sulked, or, as you very considerately say, +done worse. I had made a false move in the game, and the only thing to +do was to repair it. But you were not obliged to know that I would so +readily admit my move to have been false. Whenever I have made a fool of +myself before, I have been for sticking it out, and trying to turn all +mankind--that is, _you_--into a a fool too, so that I shouldn't be an +exception. But this time, I think, I had a kind of inspiration. I felt +that my case was desperate. I felt that if I adopted my folly now I +adopted it forever. The other day I met a man who had just come home +from Europe, and who spent last summer in Switzerland. He was telling me +about the mountain-climbing over there,--how they get over the glaciers, +and all that. He said that you sometimes came upon great slippery, +steep, snow-covered slopes that end short off in a precipice, and that +if you stumble or lose your footing as you cross them horizontally, why +you go shooting down, and you're gone; that is, but for one little +dodge. You have a long walking-pole with a sharp end, you know, and as +you feel yourself sliding,--it's as likely as not to be in a sitting +posture,--you just take this and ram it into the snow before you, and +there you are, stopped. The thing is, of course, to drive it in far +enough, so that it won't yield or break; and in any case it hurts +infernally to come whizzing down upon this upright pole. But the +interruption gives you time to pick yourself up. Well, so it was with me +the other day. I stumbled and fell; I slipped, and was whizzing +downward; but I just drove in my pole and pulled up short. It nearly +tore me in two; but it saved my life." Richard made this speech with one +hand leaning on the neck of Gertrude's horse, and the other on his own +side, and with his head slightly thrown back and his eyes on hers. She +had sat quietly in her saddle, returning his gaze. He had spoken slowly +and deliberately; but without hesitation and without heat. "This is not +romance," thought Gertrude, "it's reality." And this feeling it was that +dictated her reply, divesting it of romance so effectually as almost to +make it sound trivial. + +"It was fortunate you had a walking-pole," she said. + +"I shall never travel without one again." + +"Never, at least," smiled Gertrude, "with a companion who has the bad +habit of pushing you off the path." + +"O, you may push all you like," said Richard. "I give you leave. But +isn't this enough about myself?" + +"That's as you think." + +"Well, it's all I have to say for the present, except that I am +prodigiously glad to see you, and that of course you will stay awhile." + +"But you have your work to do." + +"Dear me, never you mind my work. I've earned my dinner this morning, if +you have no objection; and I propose to share it with you. So we will +go back to the house." He turned her horse's head about, started up his +oxen with his voice, and walked along beside her on the grassy roadside, +with one hand in the horse's mane, and the other swinging his whip. + +Before they reached the yard-gate, Gertrude had revolved his speech. +"Enough about himself," she said, silently echoing his words. "Yes, +Heaven be praised, it _is_ about himself. I am but a means in this +matter,--he himself, his own character, his own happiness, is the end." +Under this conviction it seemed to her that her part was appreciably +simplified. Richard was learning wisdom and self-control, and to +exercise his reason. Such was the suit that he was destined to gain. Her +duty was as far as possible to remain passive, and not to interfere with +the working of the gods who had selected her as the instrument of their +prodigy. As they reached the gate, Richard made a trumpet of his hands, +and sent a ringing summons into the fields; whereupon a farm-boy +approached, and, with an undisguised stare of amazement at Gertrude, +took charge of his master's team. Gertrude rode up to the door-step, +where her host assisted her to dismount, and bade her go in and make +herself at home, while he busied himself with the bestowal of her horse. +She found that, in her absence, the old woman who administered her +friend's household had reappeared, and had laid out the preparations for +his mid-day meal. By the time he returned, with his face and head +shining from a fresh ablution, and his shirt-sleeves decently concealed +by a coat, Gertrude had apparently won the complete confidence of the +good wife. + +Gertrude doffed her hat, and tucked up her riding-skirt, and sat down to +a _tete-a-tete_ over Richard's crumpled table-cloth. The young man +played the host very soberly and naturally; and Gertrude hardly knew +whether to augur from his perfect self-possession that her star was +already on the wane, or that it had waxed into a steadfast and eternal +sun. The solution of her doubts was not far to seek; Richard was +absolutely at his ease in her presence. He had told her indeed that she +intoxicated him; and truly, in those moments when she was compelled to +oppose her dewy eloquence to his fervid importunities, her whole +presence seemed to him to exhale a singularly potent sweetness. He had +told her that she was an enchantress, and this assertion, too, had its +measure of truth. But her spell was a steady one; it sprang not from her +beauty, her wit, her figure,--it sprang from her character. When she +found herself aroused to appeal or to resistance, Richard's pulses were +quickened to what he had called intoxication, not by her smiles, her +gestures, her glances, or any accession of that material beauty which +she did not possess, but by a generous sense of her virtues in action. +In other words, Gertrude exercised the magnificent power of making her +lover forget her face. Agreeably to this fact, his habitual feeling in +her presence was one of deep repose,--a sensation not unlike that which +in the early afternoon, as he lounged in his orchard with a pipe, he +derived from the sight of the hot and vaporous hills. He was innocent, +then, of that delicious trouble which Gertrude's thoughts had touched +upon as a not unnatural result of her visit, and which another woman's +fancy would perhaps have dwelt upon as an indispensable proof of its +success. "Porphyro grew faint," the poet assures us, as he stood in +Madeline's chamber on Saint Agnes' eve. But Richard did not in the least +grow faint now that his mistress was actually filling his musty old room +with her voice, her touch, her looks; that she was sitting in his +unfrequented chairs, trailing her skirt over his faded carpet, casting +her perverted image upon his mirror, and breaking his daily bread. He +was not fluttered when he sat at her well-served table, and trod her +muffled floors. Why, then, should he be fluttered now? Gertrude was +herself in all places, and (once granted that she was at peace) to be +at her side was to drink peace as fully in one place as in another. + +Richard accordingly ate a great working-day dinner in Gertrude's +despite, and she ate a small one for his sake. She asked questions +moreover, and offered counsel with most sisterly freedom. She deplored +the rents in his table-cloth, and the dismemberments of his furniture; +and although by no means absurdly fastidious in the matter of household +elegance, she could not but think that Richard would be a happier and a +better man if he were a little more comfortable. She forbore, however, +to criticise the poverty of his _entourage_, for she felt that the +obvious answer was, that such a state of things was the penalty of his +living alone; and it was desirable, under the circumstances, that this +idea should remain implied. + +When at last Gertrude began to bethink herself of going, Richard broke a +long silence by the following question: "Gertrude, _do_ you love that +man?" + +"Richard," she answered, "I refused to tell you before, because you +asked the question as a right. Of course you do so no longer. No. I do +not love him. I have been near it,--but I have missed it. And now good +by." + +For a week after her visit, Richard worked as bravely and steadily as he +had done before it. But one morning he woke up lifeless, morally +speaking. His strength had suddenly left him. He had been straining his +faith in himself to a prodigious tension, and the chord had suddenly +snapped. In the hope that Gertrude's tender fingers might repair it, he +rode over to her towards evening. On his way through the village, he +found people gathered in knots, reading fresh copies of the Boston +newspapers over each other's shoulders, and learned that tidings had +just come of a great battle in Virginia, which was also a great defeat. +He procured a copy of the paper from a man who had read it out, and made +haste to Gertrude's dwelling. + +Gertrude received his story with those passionate imprecations and +regrets which were then in fashion. Before long, Major Luttrel presented +himself, and for half an hour there was no talk but about the battle. +The talk, however, was chiefly between Gertrude and the Major, who found +considerable ground for difference, she being a great radical and he a +decided conservative. Richard sat by, listening apparently, but with the +appearance of one to whom the matter of the discourse was of much less +interest than the manner of those engaged in it. At last, when tea was +announced, Gertrude told her friends, very frankly, that she would not +invite them to remain,--that her heart was too heavy with her country's +woes, and with the thought of so great a butchery, to allow her to play +the hostess,--and that, in short, she was in the humor to be alone. Of +course there was nothing for the gentlemen but to obey; but Richard went +out cursing the law, under which, in the hour of his mistress's sorrow, +his company was a burden and not a relief. He watched in vain, as he +bade her farewell, for some little sign that she would fain have him +stay, but that as she wished to get rid of his companion civility +demanded that she should dismiss them both. No such sign was +forthcoming, for the simple reason that Gertrude was sensible of no +conflict between her desires. The men mounted their horses in silence, +and rode slowly along the lane which led from Miss Whittaker's stables +to the high-road. As they approached the top of the lane, they perceived +in the twilight a mounted figure coming towards them. Richard's heart +began to beat with an angry foreboding, which was confirmed as the rider +drew near and disclosed Captain Severn's features. Major Luttrel and he, +being bound in courtesy to a brief greeting, pulled up their horses; and +as an attempt to pass them in narrow quarters would have been a greater +incivility than even Richard was prepared to commit, he likewise +halted. + +"This is ugly news, isn't it?" said Severn. "It has determined me to go +back to-morrow." + +"Go back where?" asked Richard. + +"To my regiment." + +"Are you well enough?" asked Major Luttrel. "How is that wound?" + +"It's so much better that I believe it can finish getting well down +there as easily as here. Good by, Major. I hope we shall meet again." +And he shook hands with Major Luttrel. "Good by, Mr. Clare." And, +somewhat to Richard's surprise, he stretched over and held out his hand +to him. + +Richard felt that it was tremulous, and, looking hard into his face, he +thought it wore a certain unwonted look of excitement. And then his +fancy coursed back to Gertrude, sitting where he had left her, in the +sentimental twilight, alone with her heavy heart. With a word, he +reflected, a single little word, a look, a motion, this happy man whose +hand I hold can heal her sorrows. "Oh!" cried Richard, "that by this +hand I might hold him fast forever!" + +It seemed to the Captain that Richard's grasp was needlessly protracted +and severe. "What a grip the poor fellow has!" he thought. "Good by," he +repeated aloud, disengaging himself. + +"Good by," said Richard. And then he added, he hardly knew why, "Are you +going to bid good by to Miss Whittaker?" + +"Yes. Isn't she at home?" + +Whether Richard really paused or not before he answered, he never knew. +There suddenly arose such a tumult in his bosom that it seemed to him +several moments before he became conscious of his reply. But it is +probable that to Severn it came only too soon. + +"No," said Richard; "she's not at home. We have just been calling." As +he spoke, he shot a glance at his companion, armed with defiance of his +impending denial. But the Major just met his glance and then dropped his +eyes. This slight motion was a horrible revelation. He had served the +Major too. + +"Ah? I'm sorry," said Severn, slacking his rein,--"I'm sorry." And from +his saddle he looked down toward the house more longingly and +regretfully than he knew. + +Richard felt himself turning from pale to consuming crimson. There was a +simple sincerity in Severn's words which was almost irresistible. For a +moment he felt like shouting out a loud denial of his falsehood: "She is +there! she's alone and in tears, awaiting you. Go to her--and be +damned!" But before he could gather his words into his throat, they were +arrested by Major Luttrel's cool, clear voice, which in its calmness +seemed to cast scorn upon his weakness. + +"Captain," said the Major, "I shall be very happy to take charge of your +farewell." + +"Thank you, Major. Pray do. Say how extremely sorry I was. Good by +again." And Captain Severn hastily turned his horse about, gave him his +spurs, and galloped away, leaving his friends standing alone in the +middle of the road. As the sound of his retreat expired, Richard, in +spite of himself, drew a long breath. He sat motionless in the saddle, +hanging his head. + +"Mr. Clare," said the Major, at last, "that was very cleverly done." + +Richard looked up. "I never told a lie before," said he. + +"Upon my soul, then, you did it uncommonly well. You did it so well I +almost believed you. No wonder that Severn did." + +Richard was silent. Then suddenly he broke out, "In God's name, sir, why +don't you call me a blackguard? I've done a beastly act!" + +"O, come," said the Major, "you needn't mind that, with me. We'll +consider that said. I feel bound to let you know that I'm very, very +much obliged to you. If you hadn't spoken, how do you know but that I +might?" + +"If you had, I would have given you the lie, square in your teeth." + +"Would you, indeed? It's very fortunate, then, I held my tongue. If you +will have it so, I won't deny that your little improvisation sounded +very ugly. I'm devilish glad I didn't make it, if you come to that." + +Richard felt his wit sharpened by a most unholy scorn,--a scorn far +greater for his companion than for himself. "I am glad to hear that it +did sound ugly," he said. "To me, it seemed beautiful, holy, and just. +For the space of a moment, it seemed absolutely right that I should say +what I did. But you saw the lie in its horrid nakedness, and yet you let +it pass. You have no excuse." + +"I beg your pardon. You are immensely ingenious, but you are immensely +wrong. Are you going to make out that I am the guilty party? Upon my +word, you're a cool hand. I _have_ an excuse. I have the excuse of being +interested in Miss Whittaker's remaining unengaged." + +"So I suppose. But you don't love her. Otherwise--" + +Major Luttrel laid his hand on Richard's bridle. "Mr. Clare," said he, +"I have no wish to talk metaphysics over this matter. You had better say +no more. I know that your feelings are not of an enviable kind, and I am +therefore prepared to be good-natured with you. But you must be civil +yourself. You have done a shabby deed; you are ashamed of it, and you +wish to shift the responsibility upon me, which is more shabby still. My +advice is, that you behave like a man of spirit, and swallow your +apprehensions. I trust that you are not going to make a fool of yourself +by any apology or retraction in any quarter. As for its having seemed +holy and just to do what you did, that is mere bosh. A lie is a lie, and +as such is often excusable. As anything else,--as a thing beautiful, +holy, or just,--it's quite inexcusable. Yours was a lie to you, and a +lie to me. It serves me, and I accept it. I suppose you understand me. I +adopt it. You don't suppose it was because I was frightened by those +big black eyes of yours that I held my tongue. As for my loving or not +loving Miss Whittaker, I have no report to make to you about it. I will +simply say that I intend, if possible, to marry her." + +"She'll not have you. She'll never marry a cold-blooded rascal." + +"I think she'll prefer him to a hot-blooded one. Do you want to pick a +quarrel with me? Do you want to make me lose my temper? I shall refuse +you that satisfaction. You have been a coward, and you want to frighten +some one before you go to bed to make up for it. Strike me, and I'll +strike you in self-defence, but I'm not going to mind your talk. Have +you anything to say? No? Well, then, good evening." And Major Luttrel +started away. + +It was with rage that Richard was dumb. Had he been but a cat's-paw +after all? Heaven forbid! He sat irresolute for an instant, and then +turned suddenly and cantered back to Gertrude's gate. Here he stopped +again; but after a short pause he went in over the gravel with a +fast-beating heart. O, if Luttrel were but there to see him! For a +moment he fancied he heard the sound of the Major's returning steps. If +he would only come and find him at confession! It would be so easy to +confess before him! He went along beside the house to the front, and +stopped beneath the open drawing-room window. + +"Gertrude!" he cried softly, from his saddle. + +Gertrude immediately appeared. "You, Richard!" she exclaimed. + +Her voice was neither harsh nor sweet; but her words and her intonation +recalled vividly to Richard's mind the scene in the conservatory. He +fancied them keenly expressive of disappointment. He was invaded by a +mischievous conviction that she had been expecting Captain Severn, or +that at the least she had mistaken his voice for the Captain's. The +truth is that she had half fancied it might be,--Richard's call having +been little more than a loud whisper. The young man sat looking up at +her, silent. + +"What do you want?" she asked. "Can I do anything for you?" + +Richard was not destined to do his duty that evening. A certain +infinitesimal dryness of tone on Gertrude's part was the inevitable +result of her finding that that whispered summons came only from +Richard. She was preoccupied. Captain Severn had told her a fortnight +before, that, in case of news of a defeat, he should not await the +expiration of his leave of absence to return. Such news had now come, +and her inference was that her friend would immediately take his +departure. She could not but suppose that he would come and bid her +farewell, and what might not be the incidents, the results, of such a +visit? To tell the whole truth, it was under the pressure of these +reflections that, twenty minutes before, Gertrude had dismissed our two +gentlemen. That this long story should be told in the dozen words with +which she greeted Richard, will seem unnatural to the disinterested +reader. But in those words, poor Richard, with a lover's clairvoyance, +read it at a single glance. The same resentful impulse, the same +sickening of the heart, that he had felt in the conservatory, took +possession of him once more. To be witness of Severn's passion for +Gertrude,--that he could endure. To be witness of Gertrude's passion for +Severn,--against that obligation his reason rebelled. + +"What is it you wish, Richard?" Gertrude repeated. "Have you forgotten +anything?" + +"Nothing! nothing!" cried the young man. "It's no matter!" + +He gave a great pull at his bridle, and almost brought his horse back on +his haunches, and then, wheeling him about on himself, he thrust in his +spurs and galloped out of the gate. + +On the highway he came upon Major Luttrel, who stood looking down the +lane. + +"I'm going to the Devil, sir!" cried Richard. "Give me your hand on it." + +Luttrel held out his hand. "My poor young man," said he, "you're out of +your head. I'm sorry for you. You haven't been making a fool of +yourself?" + +"Yes, a damnable fool of myself!" + +Luttrel breathed freely. "You'd better go home and go to bed," he said. +"You'll make yourself ill by going on at this rate." + +"I--I'm afraid to go home," said Richard, in a broken voice. "For God's +sake, come with me!"--and the wretched fellow burst into tears. "I'm too +bad for any company but yours," he cried, in his sobs. + +The Major winced, but he took pity. "Come, come," said he, "we'll pull +through. I'll go home with you." + +They rode off together. That night Richard went to bed miserably drunk; +although Major Luttrel had left him at ten o'clock, adjuring him to +drink no more. He awoke the next morning in a violent fever; and before +evening the doctor, whom one of his hired men had brought to his +bedside, had come and looked grave and pronounced him very ill. + + + + +DOCTOR MOLKE. + +A SKETCH FROM LIFE. + + +As my own fancy led me into the Greenland seas, so chance sent me into a +Greenland port. It was a choice little harbor, a good way north of the +Arctic Circle,--fairly within the realm of hyperborean barrenness,--very +near the northernmost border of civilized settlement. But civilization +was exhibited there by unmistakable evidences;--a very dilute +civilization, it is true, yet, such as it was, outwardly recognizable; +for Christian habitations and Christian beings were in sight from the +vessel's deck,--at least some of the human beings who appeared upon the +beach were dressed like Christians, and veritable smoke curled +gracefully upward into the bright air above the roofs of houses from +veritable chimneys. + +We had been fighting the Arctic ice and the Arctic storms for so long a +time, that it was truly refreshing to get into this good harbor. The +little craft which had borne us thither seemed positively to enjoy her +repose, as she lay quietly to her anchors on the still waters, in the +calm air and the blazing sunshine of the Arctic noonday. As for myself, +I was simply wondering what I should find ashore. A slender fringe of +European custom bordering native barbarism and dirt was what I +anticipated; for, as I looked upon the naked rocks,--which there, as in +other Greenland ports, afforded room for a few straggling huts of native +fishermen and hunters, with only now and then a more pretentious white +man's lodge,--I could hardly imagine that much would be found seductive +to the fancy or inviting to the eye. A country where there is no soil to +yield any part of man's subsistence seemed to offer such a slender +chance for man in the battle of life, that I could well imagine it to be +repulsive rather than attractive; yet I was eager to see how poor men +might be, and live. + +While thus looking forward to a novel experience, I was unconsciously +preparing myself for a great surprise. Whatever there might be of +poverty in the condition of the few dozens of human beings who there +forced a scanty subsistence from the sea, I was to discover one person +in the place who did in no way share it,--who, born as it might seem to +different destinies, yet, voluntarily choosing wild Nature for +companionship, and rising superior to the forbidding climate and the +general desolation, rejoiced here in his own strong manhood, and lived +seemingly contented as well with himself as with the great world of +which he heard from afar but the faint murmurs. + +The anchors had been down about an hour, and the bustle and confusion +necessarily attending an entrance into port had subsided. The sails were +stowed, the decks were cleared up, and the ropes were coiled. A port +watch was set. The crew had received their "liberty," and there was much +wondering among them whether Esquimau eyes could speak a tender welcome. +Nor had the Danish flag been forgotten. That swallow-tailed emblem of a +gallant nationality--which, according to song and tradition, has the +enviable distinction of having + + "Come from heaven down, my boys, + Ay, come from heaven down"-- + +was fluttering from a white flag-staff at the front of the +government-house, and we had answered its display by running up our own +Danish colors at the fore, and saluting them with our signal-gun in all +due form and courtesy. + +Soon after reaching the anchorage I had despatched an officer to look up +the chief ruler of the place, and to assure him of the great pleasure I +should have in calling upon him, if he would name an hour convenient to +himself; and I was awaiting my messenger's return with some impatience, +when suddenly I heard the thump of his heavy sea boots on the deck +above. In a few moments he entered the cabin, and reported that the +governor was absent, but that his office was temporarily filled by a +gentleman who had been good enough to accompany him on board,--the +surgeon of the settlement, Doctor Molke; and then stepping aside, Doctor +Molke passed through the narrow doorway and stood before me, bowing. I +bowed in return, and bade him welcome, saying, I suppose, just what any +other person would have said under like circumstances, (not, however, +supposing for a moment that I was understood,) and then, turning to the +officer, I signified my wish that he should act as interpreter. But that +was needless. My Greenland visitor answered me, in pure, unbroken +English, with as little hesitation as if he had spoken no other language +all his life; and in conclusion he said: "I come to invite you to my +poor house, and to offer you my service. I can give you but a feeble +welcome in this outlandish place, but such as I have is yours; and if +you will accompany me ashore, I shall be much delighted." + +The delight was mutual; and it was not many minutes before, seated in +the stern sheets of a whale-boat, we were pulling towards the land. + +My new-found friend interested me at once. The surprise at finding +myself addressed in English was increased when I discovered that this +Greenland official bore every mark of refinement, culture, and high +breeding. His manner was wholly free from restraint; and it struck me as +something odd that all the self-possession and ease of a thorough man of +the world should be exhibited in this desert place. He did not seem to +be at all aware that there was anything incongruous in either his dress +or manner and his present situation; yet this man, who sat with me in +the stern sheets of a battered whale-boat, pulling across a Greenland +harbor to a Greenland settlement, might, with the simple addition of a +pair of suitable gloves, have stepped as he was into a ball-room without +giving rise to any other remark than would be excited by his bearing. + +His graceful figure was well set off by a neatly fitting and closely +buttoned blue frock-coat, ornamented with gilt buttons, and embroidered +cuffs, and heavily braided shoulder-knots. A decoration on his breast +told that he was a favorite with his king. His finely shaped head was +covered by a blue cloth cap, having a gilt band and the royal emblems. +Over his shoulders was thrown a cloak of mottled seal-skins, lined with +the warm and beautiful fur of the Arctic fox. His cleanly shaven face +was finely formed and full of force, while a soft blue eye spoke of +gentleness and good-nature, and with fair hair completed the evidences +of Scandinavian birth. + +My curiosity became much excited. "How," thought I, "in the name of +everything mysterious, has it happened that such a man should have +turned up in such a place?" From curiosity I passed to amazement, as his +mind unfolded itself, and his tastes were manifested. I was prepared to +be received by a fur-clad hunter, a coppery-faced Esquimau, or a meek +and pious missionary, upon whose face privation and penance had set +their seal; but for this high-spirited, high-bred, graceful, and +evidently accomplished gentleman, I was not prepared. + +I could not refrain from one leading observation. "I suppose, Doctor +Molke," said I, "that you have not been here long enough to have yet +wholly exhausted the novelty of these noble hills!" + +"Eleven years, one would think," replied he, "ought to pretty well +exhaust anything; and yet I cannot say that these hills, upon which my +eyes rest continually, have grown to be wearisome companions, even if +they may appear something forbidding." + +Eleven years among these barren hills! Eleven years in Greenland!! +Surely, thought I, this is something "passing strange." + +The scene around us as we crossed the bay was indeed imposing, and, +though desolate enough, was certainly not without its bright and +cheerful side. Behind us rose a majestic line of cliffs, climbing up +into the clouds in giant steps, picturesque yet solid,--a great massive +pedestal, as it were, supporting mountain piled on mountain, with caps +of snow whitening their summits, and great glaciers hanging on their +sides. Before us lay the town,--built upon a gnarled spur of primitive +rock, which seemed to have crept from underneath the lofty cliffs, as a +serpent from its hiding-place, and, after wriggling through the sea, to +have stopped at length, when it had almost completely enclosed a +beautiful sheet of water about a mile long by half a mile broad, leaving +but one narrow, winding entrance to it. Through this entrance the swell +of the sea could never come to disturb the silent bay, which lay there, +nestling among the dark rocks beneath the mountain shadows, as calmly as +a Swiss lake in an Alpine valley. + +But the rocky spur which supported on its rough back what there was of +the town wore a most woe-begone and distressed aspect. A few little +patches of grass and moss were visible, but generally there was nothing +to be seen but the cold gray-red naked rocks, broken and twisted into +knots and knobs, and cut across with deep and ugly cracks. I could but +wonder that on such a dreary spot man should ever think of seeking a +dwelling-place; and my companion must have interpreted my thoughts, for +he pointed to the shore, and said playfully, "Ah! it is true, you behold +at last the fruits of wisdom and instruction,--a city founded on a +rock." And then, after a moment's pause, he added: "Let me point out to +you the great features of this new wonder. First, to the right there, +underneath that little, low, black, peaked roof, dwells the royal +cook,--a Dane who came out here a long time ago, married a native of +the country, and rejoices in a brood of half-breeds, among whom are four +girls, rather dusky, but not ill-favored. Next in order is the +government-house,--that pitch-coated structure near the flag-staff. This +is the only building, you observe, that can boast of a double tier of +windows. Next, a little higher up, you see, is my own lodge, bedaubed +with pitch, like the other, to protect it against the assaults of the +weather, and to stop the little cracks. Down by the beach, a little +farther on, that largest building of all is the store-house, &c., where +the Governor keeps all sorts of traps for trade with the natives, and +where the shops are in which the cooper fixes up the oil-barrels, and +where other like industrial pursuits are carried on. A little farther on +you observe a low structure where the oil is stored. On the ledge above +the shop you see another pitchy building. This furnishes quarters for +the half-dozen Danish employees,--fellows who, not having married native +wives, hunt and fish for the glory of Denmark. Near the den of these +worthies you observe another,--a duplicate of that in which lives the +cook. There lives the royal cooper; and not far from it are two others, +not quite so pretentious, where dwell the carpenter and blacksmith,--all +of whom have followed the worthy example of the cook, and have dusky +sons and daughters to console their declining years. You may perhaps be +able to distinguish a few moss-covered hovels dotted about here and +there,--perhaps there may be twenty of them in all, though there are but +few of them in sight. These are the huts of native hunters. At present +they are not occupied, for, being without roofs that will turn water, +the people are compelled to abandon them when the snow begins to melt in +the spring, and betake themselves to seal-skin tents, some of which you +observe scattered here and there among the rocks. And now I've shown you +everything,--just in time, too, for here we are at the landing." + +We had drawn in close to the end of a narrow pier, run out into the +water on slender piles, and, quickly ascending some steps, the Doctor +led the way up to his house. The whole settlement had turned out to meet +us, men, women, children, and dogs,--which latter, about two hundred in +number, "little dogs and all," set up an ear-splitting cry, wild and +strangely in keeping with every other part of the scene, and like +nothing so much as the dismal evening concert of a pack of wolves. The +children, on the other hand, kept quiet, and clung to their mothers, as +all children do in exciting times; the mothers grinned and laughed and +chattered, "as becomes the gentler sex" in the savage state; while the +men, all smoking short clay pipes, (one of their customs borrowed from +civilization,) looked on with that air of stolid indifference peculiar +to the male barbarian. They were mostly dressed in suits of seal-skins, +but some of them wore greasy Guernsey frocks and other European +clothing. Many of the women carried cunning-looking babies strapped upon +their backs in seal-skin pouches. The heads of men and women alike were +for the most part capless; but every one of the dark, beardless faces +was surmounted by a heavy mass of straight, uncombed, and tangled +jet-black hair. There were some half-breed girls standing in little +groups upon the rocks, who, adding something of taste to the simple need +of an artificial covering for the body, were attired in dresses, which, +although of the Esquimau fashion, were quite neatly ornamented. While +passing through this curious crowd, the eye could not but find pleasure +in the novel scene, the more especially as the delight of these +half-barbarous people was excited to the highest pitch by the strange +being who had come among them. + +But if what the eye drank in gave delight, less fortunate the nose; for +from about the store-house and the native huts, and, indeed, from almost +everywhere, welled up that horrid odor of decomposing oil and fish and +flesh peculiar to a fishing-town. On this account, if on no other, I +was not sorry when we reached our destination. + +"You like not this Greenland odor?" said my conductor. "Luckily it does +not reach me here, or I should seek a still higher perch to roost +on";--saying which, he opened the door and led the way inside, first +through a little vestibule into a square hall, where we deposited our +fur coats, and then to the right, into a small room furnished with a +table, an old pine bench, a single chair, a case with glass doors +containing white jars and glass bottles having Latin labels, and +smelling dreadfully of doctor's stuffs. + +"I always come through here," said my host, "after passing the town. It +gives the olfactories a new sensation. This, you observe, is the place +where I physic the people." + +"Have you many patients, Doctor?" I inquired. + +"Not very many; but, considering that I go sometimes a hundred miles or +so to see the suffering sinners, I have quite enough to satisfy me. Not +much competition, you know. But come, we have some lunch waiting for us +in the next room, and Sophy will be growing impatient." + +A lady, eh? + +The room into which the Doctor ushered me was neatly furnished. On the +walls were hung some prints and paintings of fruits and animals and +flowers, and in the centre stood a small round table covered with dishes +carefully placed on a snowy cloth. + +All very nice, but who's Sophy? + +The Doctor tinkled a little bell, the tones of which told that it was +silver; and then, all radiant with smiles and beaming with good-nature, +Sophy entered. A strange apparition. + +"This is my housekeeper," said the Doctor, in explanation; "speak to the +American, Sophy." + +And, without embarrassment or pausing for an instant, she advanced and +bade me welcome, addressing me in fair English, and extending at the +same time a delicate little hand, which peeped out from cuffs of +eider-down. "I am glad," said she, "to see the American. I have been +looking through the window at him ever since he left the ship." + +"Now, Sophy," said the Doctor, "let us see what you have got us for +lunch." + +"O, I haven't anything at all, Doctor Molke," answered Sophy; "but I +hope the American will excuse me until dinner, when I have some nice +trout and venison." + +"'Pot-luck,' as I told you," exclaimed my host. "But never mind, Sophy, +let's have it, be it what it may." And Sophy tripped lightly out of the +room to do her master's bidding. + +"A right good girl that," said the Doctor, when the door was closed. +"Takes capital care of me." + +Strange Sophy! A pretty face of dusky hue, and a fine figure attired in +native costume, neatly ornamented and arranged with cultivated taste. +Pantaloons of mottled seal-skin, and of silvery lustre, tapered down +into long white boots, which enclosed the neatest of ankles and the +daintiest of feet. A little jacket of Scotch plaid, with a collar and +border of fur, covered the body to the waist, while from beneath the +collar peeped up a pure white cambric handkerchief, covering the throat; +and heavy masses of glossy black hair were intertwined with ribbons of +gay red. Marvellous Sophy! Dusky daughter of a Danish father and a +native mother. From her mother she had her rich brunette complexion and +raven hair; from her father, Saxon features, and light blue Saxon eyes. + +If the housekeeper attracted my attention, so did the dishes which she +set before me. Smoked salmon of exquisite delicacy, reindeer sausages, +reindeer tongues nicely dried and thinly sliced, and fine fresh Danish +bread, made up a style of "pot-luck" calculated to cause a hungry man +from the high seas and sailors' "prog" to wish for the same style of +luck for the remainder of his days. But when all this came to be washed +down with the contents of sundry bottles with which Sophy dotted the +clean white cloth, the "luck" was perfect, and there was nothing further +to desire. + +"Ah! here we are," said my entertainer. "Sophy wishes to make amends for +the dryness of her fare. This is a choice Margaux, and I can recommend +it. But, Sophy, here, you haven't warmed this quite enough. Ah! my dear +sir, you experience the trouble of a Greenland life. One can never get +his wines properly tempered." + +One cannot get his wines properly tempered!--and this is the trouble of +a Greenland life!! "Surely," thought I, "one might find something worse +than this." + +"Here," picking up the next bottle, "we have some Johannisberg, very +fine as I can assure you; but I have little fancy even for the best of +these Rhenish wines. Too much like a pretty woman without soul. They +never warm the imagination. There's something better to build upon there +close beside your elbow. Since the claret's forbidden us for the +present, I'll drink you welcome in that rich Madeira. Why, do you know, +sir," rattled on the Doctor, as I passed the bottle, seemingly rejoiced +in his very heart at having some one to talk to,--"do you know, sir, +that I have kept that by me here these ten years past? My good old +father sent it to me as a mark of special favor. Why, sir, it has a +pedigree as long as one of Locksley's cloth-yard shafts. But the +pedigree will keep: let's prove it,"--and he filled up two dainty French +straw-stem glasses, and pledged me in the good old Danish style. Then, +when the claret came back, this time all rightly tempered, the Doctor +filled the glasses, and hoped that, when I "left this place, the girls +would pull lustily on the tow-ropes." + +Hunger and thirst were soon appeased. "And now," said the Doctor, when +this was done, "I know you are dying for the want of something fresh and +green. You have probably tasted nothing that grew out of dear old Mother +Earth since leaving home";--and he tinkled his silver bell again, and +Sophy of the silver seal-skin pantaloons and dainty boots tripped softly +through the door. + +"Sophy, haven't you a surprise for the American?" + +Sophy smiled knowingly, and said, "Yes," as she retreated. In a moment +she came back, carrying a little silver dish, with a little green +pyramid upon it. Out from the green peeped little round red +globes,--_radishes_, as I lived!--round red radishes!--_ten_ round red +radishes! + +"What! radishes in Greenland!" I exclaimed involuntarily. + +"Yes, and raised on my own farm, too; you shall see it by and by." The +Doctor was enjoying my surprise, and Sophy looked on with undisguised +satisfaction. Meanwhile I lost no time in tumbling the pyramid to +pieces, and crunching the delicious bulbs. They disappeared in a +twinkling. Their rich and luscious juices seemed to pour at once into +the very blood, and to tingle at the very finger-tips. I never knew +before the full enjoyment of the fresh growth of the soil. After so long +a deprivation it was indeed a strange, as it will remain a lasting +sensation. Never to my dying day shall I forget the ten radishes of +Greenland. + +"You see that I was right," exclaimed my host, after the vigorous +assault was ended. "And now," continued he, addressing Sophy, "bring the +other things." + +The "other things" proved to be a plate of fine lettuce, a bit of +Stilton cheese, and coffee in transparent little china cups, and sugar +in a silver bowl, and then cigars,--everything of the best and purest; +and as we passed from one thing to another, I became at length persuaded +that the Arctic Circle was a myth, that my cruise among the icebergs was +a dream, and that Greenland was set down wrongly on the maps. Long +before this I had been convinced that Doctor Molke was a most mysterious +character, and wholly unaccountable. + +After we had finished this sumptuous lunch and chatted for a while, the +Doctor surprised me again by asking if I would like a game of billiards. +(Billiards in Greenland, as well as radishes!) "But first," said he, +"let us try this sunny Burgundy. Ah! these red wines are the only truly +generous wines. They monopolize all the sensuous glories and +associations of the fruit. With these red wines one drinks in the very +soul and sentiment of the lands which grow the grapes that breed them." + +"Even if drank in Greenland?" + +"Yes, or at the very Pole. Geographical lines may confine our bodies; +but nature is an untamed wild, where the spirit roams at will. If I am +here hemmed in by barren hills, and live in a desert waste, yet, as one +of your sweetest poets has put it, my + + 'Fancy, like the finger of a clock, + Runs the great circuit and is still at home'; + +and truly, I believe that I have in this retreat about as much enjoyment +of life as they who taste of it more freely; for while I can here feel +all the world's warm pulsations, I am freed from its annoyances: if the +sweet is less sweet, the bitter is less bitter. But--Well, let's have +the billiards." + +My host now led the way into the billiard-room, which was tastefully +ornamented with everything needful to harmonize with a handsome table +standing in its centre, upon which we were soon knocking the balls about +in an ill-matched game, for he beat me sadly. I was much surprised at +the skilfulness of his play, and remarked that I thought it something +singular that he "should there find any one to keep him so well in +hand." + +"Ah! my dear sir," said he, "you have yet much to learn. This country is +not so bad as you think for. Sophy--native-born Sophy--is my antagonist, +and she beats me three times out of five." Wonderful Sophy! + +The game finished, my host next led the way into his study. A charming +retreat as ever human wit and ingenuity devised. It was indeed rather a +parlor than a study. The room was quite large, and was literally filled +with odd bits of furniture, elegant and well kept. Heavy crimson +curtains were draped about the windows, a rich crimson carpet covered +the floor, and there were lounges and chairs of various patterns, +adapted for every temper of mind or mood of body,--all of the same +pleasing color. Odd _etageres_, hanging and standing, and a large solid +walnut case, were all well filled with books, and other books were +carefully arranged on a table in the centre of the room. Among them my +eye quickly detected the works of various English authors, conspicuous +among which were Shakespeare, Byron, Scott, Dickens, Cooper, and +Washington Irving. Sam Slick had a place there, and close beside him was +the renowned Lemuel Gulliver; and in science there were, beside many +others, Brewster, Murchison, and Lyell. The books all showed that they +were well used, and they embraced the principal classical stores of the +French and German tongues, beside the English and his own native Danish. +In short, the collection was precisely such as one would expect to find +in any civilized place, where means were not wanting, the disposition to +read a habit and a pleasure, and the books themselves boon companions. + +A charming feature of the room was the air of refreshing _neglige_ with +which sundry robes of bear and fox skins were tossed about upon the +chairs and lounges and floor; while the blank spaces of the walls were +broken by numerous pictures, some of them apparently family relics, and +on little brackets were various souvenirs of art and travel. + +"I call this my study," said the Doctor; "but in truth there is the real +shop";--and he led me into a little room adjoining, in which there was +but one window, one table, one chair, no shelves, a great number of +books, lying about in every direction, and great quantities of paper. On +the wall hung about two dozen pipes of various shapes and sizes, and a +fine assortment of guns and rifles and all the paraphernalia of a +practised sportsman. It was easy to see that there was one place where +the native-born Sophy did not come. + +The chamber of this singular Greenland recluse was in keeping with his +study. The walls were painted light blue, a blue carpet adorned the +floor, blue curtains softened the light which stole through the windows, +and blue hangings cast a pleasant hue over a snowy pillow. Although +small, there was indeed nothing wanting, not even a well-arranged +bath-room,--nothing that the most fastidious taste could covet or +desire. + +"And now," said my entertainer, when we had got seated in the study, +"does this present attractions sufficient to tempt you from your narrow +bunk on shipboard? You are most heartily welcome to that blue den which +you admire so much, and which I am heartily sick of, while I can make +for myself a capital 'shake-down' here, or _vice versa_. If neither of +these will suit you, then cast your eyes out of the window, and you will +observe snow enough to build a more truly Arctic lodging." + +I stepped to the window, and there, sure enough, piled up beneath it and +against the house, was a great bank of snow, which the summer's sun had +not yet dissolved; and as I saw this, and then looked beyond it over the +wretched little village, and the desolate waste of rocks on which it +stood, and then on up the craggy steeps to the great white-topped +mountains, I could but wonder what strange occurrence had sent this +luxury-loving man, with books only for companions, into such a howling +wilderness. Was it his own fancy? or was it some cruel necessity? In +truth, the surprise was so great that I found myself suddenly turning +from the scene outside to that within, not indeed without an impulse +that the whole thing might have vanished in the interval, as the palace +of Aladdin in the Arabian tale. + +My host was watching me attentively, no doubt reading my thoughts, for +as I turned round he asked if I "liked the contrast." To be quite +candid, I was forced to own myself greatly wondering "that a den so well +fitted for the latitude of Paris should be stumbled upon away up here so +near the Pole." + +"Hardly in keeping with 'the eternal fitness of things,' eh?" + +"Precisely so." + +"You think, then, because a fellow chooses to live in barbarous +Greenland, he must needs turn barbarian?" + +"Not exactly that, but we are in the habit of associating the +appreciation of comfort and luxury with the desire for social +intercourse,--certainly not with banishment like this." + +"Then you would be inclined to think there is something unnatural, in +short, mysterious, in my being here,--tastes, fancies, inclinations, and +all?" + +"I confess it would so strike me, if I took the liberty to speculate +upon it." + +"Very far from the truth, I do assure you. I am not obliged to be here +any more than you are. I came from pure choice, and am at liberty to +return when I please. In truth, I do go home with the ship to +Copenhagen, once in three or four years, and spend a winter there, +living the while in a den much like what you here see; but I am always +glad enough to get back again. The salary which I receive from the +government does not support me as I live, so you see _that_ is not a +motive. But I am perfectly independent, have capital health, lots of +adventure, hardship enough (for you must know that, if I do sleep under +a sky-blue canopy, I am esteemed one of the most hardy men in all +Greenland) to satisfy the most insatiate appetite and perverse +disposition." + +"Sufficient reason, I should say, for a year or so, but hardly one would +think, for a lifetime." + +"Why not?" + +"Because the novelty of adventure wears off in a little time. Good +health never gives us satisfaction, for we do not give it thought until +we lose it, so that can never be an impelling motive; and as for +independence, what is that, when one can never be freed from himself? In +short, I should say one so circumstanced as you are would die of ennui; +that his mind, constantly thrown back upon itself, must, sooner or +later, result in a weariness even worse than death itself. However, I am +only curious, not critical." + +"But you forget these shelves. Those books are my friends; of them I +never grow weary, they never grow weary of me; we understand each other +perfectly,--they talk to me when I would listen, they sing to me when I +would be charmed, they play for me when I would be amused. Ah! my dear +sir, this country is great as all countries are great, each in its way; +and this is a great country to read books in. Upon my word, I wonder +everybody don't fill ships with books and come up here, burn the ships, +as did the great Spaniard, and each spend the remainder of his days in +devouring his ship-load of books." + +"A pretty picture of the country, truly; but let me ask how often do +books reach you?" + +"Once a year,--when the Danish ship comes out to bring us bread, sugar, +coffee, coal, and such-like things, and to take home the few little +trifles, such as furs, oil, and fish, which the natives have picked up +in the interval." + +"Books to the contrary, I should say the ship would not return more than +once without me, were I in your situation." + +"So you would think me a sensible fellow, no doubt, if I would pick up +this box and carry it off to Paris, or may be to New York?" + +"That's exactly what I was thinking; or rather it would certainly have +appeared to me more reasonable if you had built it there in the first +instance." + +"Quite the contrary, I do assure you,--quite the contrary. Indeed, I can +prove to your entire satisfaction that I am a very sensible man; but +wait until I have shown you all my possessions. Will you look at my +farm?" + +Farm!--well, this was, after all, exhibiting some claims of the country +to the consideration of a civilized man. A farm in Greenland was +something I was hardly prepared for. + +The Doctor now rose and led the way to the rear of the house, into a +yard about eighty feet square, enclosed by a high board fence. + +"This is my farm," said the Doctor. + +"Where?" + +"Here, look. It isn't a large one." And he pointed to a patch of earth +about thirty feet long by four wide, enclosed with boards and covered +over with glass. Under the glass were growing lettuce, radishes, and +pepper-grass, all looking as bright and fresh and green and well +contented as if they, like the man for whose benefit they grew, cared +little where they sprouted, so only they grew. The ten round red +radishes of the recent luncheon were accounted for. + +"So you see," exclaimed the Doctor, "something besides a lover of books +can take root in this country. Are you not growing reconciled to it? To +be sure they are fed on pap from home; but so does the farmer who +cultivates them get his books from the same quarter." + +"How is that? Do you mean to say you bring the earth they grow in from +home?" + +"Even so. This is good rich Jutland earth, brought in barrels by ship +from Copenhagen." + +An imported farm! One more novelty. + +"Now you shall see my barn";--and we passed over to a little tightly +made building in the opposite corner, where the first thing that greeted +my ears was the bleating of goats and the grunting of pigs; and as the +door was opened, I heard the cackling and flutter of chickens. Twenty +chickens, two pigs, and three goats! + +"All brought from Copenhagen with the farm";--and the Doctor began to +talk to them in a very familiar manner in the Danish tongue. They all +recognized the kindly voice of their master, and flocked round him to be +fed; and while this was being done I observed that he had provided for +the safety of his brood by securing in the centre of their house a large +stove, which was now cold, but which in the winter must give them +abundant heat. And so the Doctor, besides his round red radishes and his +nice fresh butter, had pork and milk and eggs of native growth. + +The next object of interest to attract attention was the Doctor's +"smoke-house," then in full operation. This was simply a large hogshead, +with one head pierced with holes and the other head knocked out. The end +without a head was set upon a circle of stones, which supported it about +a foot above the ground, and inside of this circle a great volume of +smoke was being generated, and which came puffing out through the holes +in the head above. Inside of this simple contrivance were suspended a +number of fine salmon, the delicate flesh of which was being dried by +the heat, and penetrated by the sweet aroma of the smoke, which came +puffing through the holes. The smoke arose from a smouldering fire of +the leaves and branches of the Andromeda (_Andromeda tetrigona_), the +heather of Greenland,--a trailing plant with a pretty purple blossom, +which grows in sheltered places in great abundance. Besides moss, this +is the only vegetable production of North Greenland that will burn, and +it is sometimes used by the natives for fuel, after it is dried by the +sun, for which purpose it is torn up and spread over the rocks. The +perfume of the smoke is truly delicious, which accounts for the +excellent flavor of the salmon which the Doctor had given me for lunch. +Nothing, indeed, could exceed the delicacy of the fish thus prepared. + +The inspection of the Doctor's garden, or "farm," as he facetiously +called it, occupied us during the remainder of the afternoon; and so +novel was everything to me, from the Doctor down to his vegetables and +perfumed fish, that the time passed away unnoticed, and I was quite +astonished when Sophy came to announce "dinner." + +We were soon seated at the table where we had been before, and Sophy +served the dinner. Her soup was excellent, the trout were of fine +quality and well cooked, the haunch was done to a turn, the wines were +this time rightly tempered, the champagne needed not to be iced, more of +the round red radishes appeared in season, and then followed lettuce and +cheese and coffee, and then we found ourselves at another game of +billiards, and at length were settled for the evening in the Doctor's +study, one on either side of a table, on which stood all the ingredients +for an arrack punch, and a bundle of cigars. + +Our conversation naturally enough ran upon the affairs of the big world +on the other side of the Arctic Circle,--upon its politics and +literature and science and art, passing lightly from one to the other, +lingering now and then over some book which we had mutually fancied. I +found my companion perfectly posted up to within a year, and inquired +how he managed so well. "Ah! you must know," answered he, "that is a +clever little illusion of mine. I'm always precisely one year behind the +rest of the world. The Danish ship brings me a file of papers for the +past twelve months, the principal reviews and periodicals, the latest +maps, such books as I have sent for the year previous, and, beside this, +the bookseller and my other home friends make me up an assortment of +what they think will please me. Now, you see, in devouring this, I +pursue an absolute method. The books, of course, I take up as the fancy +pleases me; but the reviews, periodicals, and newspapers I turn over to +Sophy, and the faithful creature places on my breakfast-table every +morning exactly what was published that day one year before. Clever, +isn't it? You see I get every day the news, and go through the drama of +the year with perhaps quite as much satisfaction as they who live the +passing days in the midst of the occurring events. Each day's paper +opens a new act in the play, and what matters it that the 'news' is one +year old? It is none the less news to me; and, besides, are not Gibbon, +Shakespeare, and Mother Goose still more ancient?" + +I could but smile at this ingenious device; and the Doctor, seeing +plainly that I was deeply interested in his novel mode of life, loosened +a tongue which, in truth, needed little encouragement, and rattled away +over the rough and smooth of his Greenland experiences, with an +enjoyment on his part perhaps scarcely less than mine; for it was easy +to see that his love of wild adventure kept pace with his love of +comfort, and that he heartily enjoyed the exposures of his career and +the reputation which his hardihood had acquired for him. I perceived, +too, that he possessed a warm and vivid imagination, and that, clothing +everything he saw and everything he did with a fitting sentiment of +strength or beauty, he had blended wild nature and his own strange life +into a romantic scheme which completely filled his fancy,--apparently, +at least, leaving nothing unsupplied,--and this he enjoyed to the very +bottom of his soul. + +The hours glided swiftly away as we sat sipping our punch and smoking +our cigars in that quaint study of the Doctor's, chatting of this and of +that; and a novel feature of the evening was, that, as we talked on and +on, the light grew not dim with the passing hours; for when the hand of +a Danish clock which ticked above the mantel told nine, and ten, and +eleven o'clock, it was still broad day; and then in the full blaze of +sunshine the clock rang out the "witching hour" of midnight. The sun, +low down upon the northern horizon, poured his bright rays over the +hills and sea, throwing the dark shadow of the mountains over the town, +but illuminating everything to right and left with that soft and +pleasant light which we so often see at home in the early morning of the +spring. + +After the clock had struck twelve, we threw our fur cloaks over our +shoulders, and strolled out into this strange midnight. Passing through +the town, I remarked the quiet which everywhere prevailed, and how all +nature seemed to have caught the inspiration of the hour. Not a soul was +stirring abroad; the dogs, crouching in clusters, were all asleep; and +it seemed as if my little vessel lay under the shadows of the cliffs +with a consciousness that midnight is a solemn thing even in sunshine; +and never did the sun shine more brightly, or a more brilliantly +illuminated landscape give stronger evidence of day. But wearied nature +had sought repose, even though no "sable cloud with silver lining" +turned upon the world its darkening shadow,--for the hour of rest was +come. Walking on over the rough rocks, we came at length upon the sea, +and I noticed that the very birds which were wont to paddle about in +great flocks upon the waters, or fly gayly through the air, had crawled +upon the shore, and, tucking their heads beneath their wings, had gone +to sleep. Even the little flowers and blades of grass seemed to droop, +as if wearied with the long hours of the day, and, defying the restless +sun to rob them of their natural repose, had fallen to sleep with the +beasts and birds. The very sea itself seemed to have caught the +infection of the hour, dissolving in its blue depths the golden clouds +of day. + +The night was far from cold, and, selecting the most tempting and sunny +spot, we sat down upon a rock close beside the sea, watching the gentle +wavelets playing on the sand, and the changing light as the sun rolled +on, glistening upon the hills and upon the icebergs, which, in countless +numbers, lay upon the watery plain before us, like great monoliths of +Parian marble, waiting but for the sculptor's chisel to stand forth in +fluted pillar and solid architrave,--floating Parthenons and Pantheons +and Temples of the Sun. + +The scene was favorable to the conversation which had been broken off +when we left the study, and the Doctor came back to it of his own +accord. I was much absorbed with the grandeur of this midnight scene, +and had remained for some time quiet. My companion, breaking in +abruptly, said: "I think I promised to prove to you that I am the most +sensible fellow alive. Now let me tell you, to begin with, that I would +not exchange this view for any other I have ever seen. It is one of +which I am very fond; for at this hour the repose which you here see is +frequently repeated; and, to compare big things with little, it might be +likened to some huge lion sleeping over his prey, which he is not yet +prepared to eat, quick to catch the first sound of movement. There is +something truly terrible in this untamed nature. Man's struggle here +gives him something to rejoice in; and I would not barter it for the +effeminate life to which I should be destined at home, on any account +whatever. Perhaps, if I should there be compelled absolutely to earn my +daily bread, the case might be different, for enforced occupation is +quite too sober an affair to give time for much reflection; but I should +most likely lead an idle sort of life there, and should simply live +without--so far as I can see--a motive. I should encounter few perils, +have few sorrows, fewer disappointments, and want for nothing,--nothing, +indeed, but temptation to exert myself, or prove my own manhood in its +strength, or enjoy the luxury of risking the precious breath of life, +which is so little worth, and which is so easily knocked away. You have +seen one side of me,--how I live. Well, I enjoy life and make the most +of it, after my own fashion, as everybody should do. If it is a +luxurious fashion, as you are pleased to say, it but gives me a keener +relish for the opposite; and that it does not unfit me for encountering +the hardships of the field is proved by the reputation for endurance +which I have among the natives. If I sleep between well-aired sheets one +night, I can coil myself up among my dogs on the ice-fields the next, +and sleep there as well,--I care not if it's as cold as the frigid +circle of Lucifer. If I have a _penchant_ for Burgundy, and like to +drink it out of French glass, I can drink train-oil out of a tin cup +when I am cold and hungry, and never murmur. I like well-fitting +clothes, but rough furs suit me just as well in season. Why, it would +make you laugh fit to kill yourself to see these Danish workingmen,--the +laborers, you know, with whom I sometimes travel,--fellows that can't +read nor write, poor mechanics, rough sailors, 'hewers of wood and +drawers of water' generally for this poor settlement,--who never tasted +Burgundy in all their lives, and would rather have one keg of corn +brandy than a tun of it, and who never took their frugal fare off +anything more tempting than tin. Do you think that these people can, +under any circumstances, be induced to strengthen their limbs with +eating blubber or drinking train-oil? Not a bit of it. Do you think they +can be induced to sleep outside of their own not overly elegant +lodgings, without groaning, and everlastingly desiring to get back +again? Not they." + +I could not help asking the Doctor what impelled him to exposure, of +which he had grown so fond. + +"The motives are various. I have done a good deal of exploring, have +reached many of the glaciers, have dabbled in natural history, +meteorology, magnetism, &c., &c., besides making many photographs and +geographical surveys, and have sent home to various societies and +museums many curiosities and much information. My name, as you know, +stands well enough among the dons of science. But apart from this, my +duties require me to travel about at all times and all seasons. You must +know that everybody in this country lives upon the shore, and therefore +the settlements are reached only by the sea. In the winter I travel over +the ice with my dog sledge, and in the summer, when the ice has broken +up, I go from place to place in that little five-ton yacht which you saw +lying in the harbor. Sometimes I go from choice, stopping at the +villages, and exhibiting my professional abilities upon Dane or native, +as the case may be. Often I am sent for. The Greenlanders don't like to +die any better than other people, and they all have an impression that, +if Dr. Molke only looks upon them, they are safe. So if an old woman but +gets the belly-ache, away goes her son or husband for the Doctor. +Perhaps it is in summer, and the distance may be a hundred miles or +more. No matter, he gets into his kayak and paddles through all sorts of +weather, and, at the rate of seven knots an hour, comes for me. Glad of +the excuse for a change, to say nothing (and the less perhaps any of us +say on that score the better) of the claims of humanity, I send Sophy +after Adam (a converted native), and directly along comes Adam with his +son Carl; and my medicine and instrument cases, my gun and rifle, and a +plentiful supply of ammunition, a tent, and some fur bedding, a lamp, +and other camp fixtures, and a little simple food, are put into the +boat, and off we go. Perhaps a gale springs up, and we are forced to +make a harbor in some little island; or perhaps it falls calm, and we +crawl into one, under oars. It is sure to be alive with ducks and geese +and snipe. The shooting is superb. Happen what may, come storm or calm +or fine weather, though often wet and cold, and frequently in danger, +yet I have a grand time of it. I may be back in a day, two days, a week, +or I may be gone a month. Then the winter comes back, and I have again +to answer another summons. The same traps are put on the sledge, to +which are harnessed the twelve finest dogs in the town,--my own +team,--and, at the wildest pace with which this wolfish herd can rush +along, Adam guides me to my destination. Perhaps it may be early in the +winter, and the ice is in places thin. We very likely break through, and +get wet, and are in danger of freezing. Perhaps we reach a crack which +we cannot pass, and have to hold on, possibly in a hut of snow, waiting +for the frost to build a bridge for us to pass. This is the wildest and +most dangerous of my experiences,--this dog-sledging it from place to +place in the early or late winter,--and I have had many wild adventures. +In the middle of the winter, when it is dark pretty much all the time, +and the snow is hard and crisp, and the clear, cold bracing air makes +the blood run freely through the veins, is the best time for travelling; +for then we may start a bear, and be pretty sure of catching him before +he gets on rotten ice or across a crack defying us in the pursuit." + +By this time the sun had begun to climb above the hills, and the shadow +of the cliffs had passed over the town, so we stole back again to the +Doctor's house. The Doctor insisted that I should not sleep on board, so +we returned to the study, where I was soon wrapt in a sound sleep on the +Doctor's "shake-down," from which I never once awoke until there came a +loud tapping on the door. + +"Who's there?" + +"Sophy." + +"What's Sophy want?" + +"Breakfast." + +Breakfast indeed! It was hard to believe that I was to come back to the +experiences of life under such a summons, for I had dreamed that I was +on a visit to the Man in the Moon, and was enjoying a genuine surprise +at finding him happy and well contented, seated in the centre of an +extinct volcano, with all the riches of the great satellite gathered +round him, hanging in tempting clusters on its horns. + +But my eyes at length were opened wide enough to see, near by, the very +terrestrial ruins of our evening's pastime; and if these had left any +doubts upon my mind as to the reality of my present situation, those +doubts would certainly have been removed by the cheerful voice of the +Doctor; for a loud "Good morning!" came from out the painted chamber, +and from beneath the sky-blue canopy a graceful query of the night. +"What of the night, sleeper?--what of the night?" Then I was quickly out +upon the floor, and dressed, and in the cosey little room where the +fruits and flowers were hanging on the wall, and where the bright face +of Sophy, and aromatic coffee, and a charming little breakfast, were +awaiting us with a kindly welcome. + +Breakfast over, I left the Doctor to expend his skill and knowledge on a +patient who had sent to claim his services, and strolled out over the +rocks behind the town,--wondering all the while at the strangeness of +the human fancy and its power on the will; and I reflected, too, and +remembered that, in the explanation of the satisfying character of the +life which my new-found friend was leading, there had been no clew given +to the first great motive which had destined such a finely organized and +altogether splendid man to such a career. Was he exempt from the lot of +other mortals, or must he too own, like all the rest of us, when we own +the truth, that every firm step we ever made in those days of our early +lives when steps were critical, was made to please a woman, to win her +slightest praise, to heal a wound or drown a sorrow of her making? I +would have given much to have the question answered, for then a thing +now mysterious would have become as plain as day; but there was no one +there to heed the question, or to give the answer, and I could only +wander on over the rough rocks, wondering more and more. + + + + +A STRUGGLE FOR LIFE. + + +One morning last April, as I was passing through Boston Common, which +lies pleasantly between my residence and my office, I met a gentleman +lounging along The Mall. I am generally preoccupied when walking, and +often thrid my way through crowded streets without distinctly observing +a single soul. But this man's face forced itself upon me, and a very +singular face it was. His eyes were faded, and his hair, which he wore +long, was flecked with gray. His hair and eyes, if I may say so, were +seventy years old, the rest of him not thirty. The youthfulness of his +figure, the elasticity of his gait, and the venerable appearance of his +head, were incongruities that drew more than one pair of curious eyes +towards him. He was evidently an American,--the New England cut of +countenance is unmistakable,--evidently a man who had seen something of +the world; but strangely old and young. + +Before reaching the Park Street gate, I had taken up the thread of +thought which he had unconsciously broken; yet throughout the day this +old young man, with his unwrinkled brow and silvered locks, glided in +like a phantom between me and my duties. + +The next morning I again encountered him on The Mall. He was resting +lazily on the green rails, watching two little sloops in distress, which +two ragged ship-owners had consigned to the mimic perils of the Pond. +The vessels lay becalmed in the middle of the ocean, displaying a +tantalizing lack of sympathy with the frantic helplessness of the owners +on shore. As the gentleman observed their dilemma, a light came into his +faded eyes, then died out, leaving them drearier than before. I wondered +if he, too, in his time, had sent out ships that drifted and drifted and +never came to port; and if these poor toys were to him types of his own +losses. + +"I would like to know that man's story," I said, half aloud, halting in +one of those winding paths which branch off from the quietness of the +Pond, and end in the rush and tumult of Tremont Street. + +"Would you?" replied a voice at my side. I turned and faced Mr. H----, a +neighbor of mine, who laughed heartily at finding me talking to myself. +"Well," he added, reflectingly, "I can tell you this man's story; and if +you will match the narrative with anything as curious, I shall be glad +to hear it." + +"You know him then?" + +"Yes and no. I happened to be in Paris when he was buried." + +"Buried!" + +"Well, strictly speaking, not buried; but something quite like it. If +you've a spare half-hour," continued my interlocutor, "we'll sit on this +bench, and I will tell you all I know of an affair that made some noise +in Paris a couple of years ago. The gentleman himself, standing yonder, +will serve as a sort of frontispiece to the romance,--a full-page +illustration, as it were." + +The following pages contain the story that Mr. H---- related to me. +While he was telling it, a gentle wind arose; the miniature sloops +drifted feebly about the ocean; the wretched owners flew from point to +point, as the deceptive breeze promised to waft the barks to either +shore; the early robins trilled now and then from the newly fringed +elms; and the old young man leaned on the rail in the sunshine, wearily, +little dreaming that two gossips were discussing his affairs within +twenty yards of him. + + * * * * * + +Three people were sitting in a chamber whose one large window overlooked +the Place Vendome. M. Dorine, with his back half turned on the other two +occupants of the apartment, was reading the _Moniteur_, pausing from +time to time to wipe his glasses, and taking scrupulous pains not to +glance towards the lounge at his right, on which were seated +Mademoiselle Dorine and a young American gentleman, whose handsome face +rather frankly told his position in the family. There was not a happier +man in Paris that afternoon than Philip Wentworth. Life had become so +delicious to him that he shrunk from looking beyond to-day. What could +the future add to his full heart? what might it not take away? In +certain natures the deepest joy has always something of melancholy in +it, a presentiment, a fleeting sadness, a feeling without a name. +Wentworth was conscious of this subtile shadow, that night, when he rose +from the lounge, and thoughtfully held Julie's hand to his lip for a +moment before parting. A careless observer would not have thought him, +as he was, the happiest man in Paris. + +M. Dorine laid down his paper and came forward. "If the house," he said, +"is such as M. Martin describes it, I advise you to close with him at +once. I would accompany you, Philip, but the truth is, I am too sad at +losing this little bird to assist you in selecting a cage for her. +Remember, the last train for town leaves at five. Be sure not to miss +it; for we have seats for M. Sardou's new comedy to-morrow night. By +to-morrow night," he added laughingly, "little Julie here will be an old +lady, ----'t is such an age from now until then." + +The next morning the train bore Philip to one of the loveliest spots +within thirty miles of Paris. An hour's walk through green lanes brought +him to M. Martin's estate. In a kind of dream the young man wandered +from room to room, inspected the conservatory, the stables, the lawns, +the strip of woodland through which a merry brook sang to itself +continually; and, after dining with M. Martin, completed the purchase, +and turned his steps towards the station, just in time to catch the +express train. + +As Paris stretched out before him, with its million lights twinkling in +the early dusk, and its sharp spires here and there pricking the sky, it +seemed to Philip as if years had elapsed since he left the city. On +reaching Paris he drove to his hotel, where he found several letters +lying on the table. He did not trouble himself even to glance at their +superscriptions as he threw aside his travelling surtout for a more +appropriate dress. + +If, in his impatience to see Mademoiselle Dorine, the cars had appeared +to walk, the fiacre which he had secured at the station appeared to +creep. At last it turned into the Place Vendome, and drew up before M. +Dorine's residence. The door opened as Philip's foot touched the first +step. The servant silently took his cloak and hat, with a special +deference, Philip thought; but was he not now one of the family? + +"M. Dorine," said the servant slowly, "is unable to see Monsieur at +present. He wishes Monsieur to be shown up to the _salon_." + +"Is Mademoiselle--" + +"Yes, Monsieur." + +"Alone?" + +"Alone, Monsieur," repeated the man, looking curiously at Philip, who +could scarcely repress an exclamation of pleasure. + +It was the first time that such a privilege had been accorded him. His +interviews with Julie had always taken place in the presence of M. +Dorine, or some member of the household. A well-bred Parisian girl has +but a formal acquaintance with her lover. + +Philip did not linger on the staircase; his heart sang in his bosom as +he flew up the steps, two at a time. Ah! this wine of air which one +drinks at twenty, and seldom after! He hastened through the softly +lighted hall, in which he detected the faint scent of her favorite +flowers, and stealthily opened the door of the _salon_. + +The room was darkened. Underneath the chandelier stood a slim black +casket on trestles. A lighted candle, a crucifix, and some white flowers +were on a table near by. Julie Dorine was dead. + +When M. Dorine heard the indescribable cry that rang through the silent +house, he hurried from the library, and found Philip standing like a +ghost in the middle of the chamber. + +It was not until long afterwards that Wentworth learned the details of +the calamity that had befallen him. On the previous night Mademoiselle +Dorine had retired to her room in seemingly perfect health. She +dismissed her maid with a request to be awakened early the next morning. +At the appointed hour the girl entered the chamber. Mademoiselle Dorine +was sitting in an arm-chair, apparently asleep. The candle had burnt +down to the socket; a book lay half open on the carpet at her feet. The +girl started when she saw that the bed had not been occupied, and that +her mistress still wore an evening dress. She rushed to Mademoiselle +Dorine's side. It was not slumber. It was death. + +Two messages were at once despatched to Philip, one to the station at +G----, the other to his hotel. The first missed him on the road, the +second he had neglected to open. On his arrival at M. Dorine's house, +the servant, under the supposition that Wentworth had been advised of +Mademoiselle Dorine's death, broke the intelligence with awkward +cruelty, by showing him directly to the _salon_. + +Mademoiselle Dorine's wealth, her beauty, the suddenness of her death, +and the romance that had in some way attached itself to her love for the +young American, drew crowds to witness the funeral ceremonies which took +place in the church in the Rue d'Aguesseau. The body was to be laid in +M. Dorine's tomb, in the cemetery of Montmartre. + +This tomb requires a few words of description. First there was a grating +of filigraned iron; through this you looked into a small vestibule or +hall, at the end of which was a massive door of oak opening upon a short +flight of stone steps descending into the tomb. The vault was fifteen or +twenty feet square, ingeniously ventilated from the ceiling, but +unlighted. It contained two sarcophagi: the first held the remains of +Madame Dorine, long since dead; the other was new, and bore on one side +the letters J. D., in monogram, interwoven with fleurs-de-lis. + +The funeral train stopped at the gate of the small garden that enclosed +the place of burial, only the immediate relatives following the bearers +into the tomb. A slender wax candle, such as is used in Catholic +churches, burnt at the foot of the uncovered sarcophagus, casting a dim +glow over the centre of the apartment, and deepening the shadows which +seemed to huddle together in the corners. By this flickering light the +coffin was placed in its granite shell, the heavy slab laid over it +reverently, and the oaken door revolved on its rusty hinges, shutting +out the uncertain ray of sunshine that had ventured to peep in on the +darkness. + +M. Dorine, muffled in his cloak, threw himself on the back seat of the +carriage, too abstracted in his grief to observe that he was the only +occupant of the vehicle. There was a sound of wheels grating on the +gravelled avenue, and then all was silence again in the cemetery of +Montmartre. At the main entrance the carriages parted company, dashing +off into various streets at a pace that seemed to express a sense of +relief. The band plays a dead march going to the grave, but _Fra +Diavolo_ coming from it. + +It is not with the retreating carriages that our interest lies. Nor yet +wholly with the dead in her mysterious dream; but with Philip Wentworth. + +The rattle of wheels had died out of the air when Philip opened his +eyes, bewildered, like a man abruptly roused from slumber. He raised +himself on one arm and stared into the surrounding blackness. Where was +he? In a second the truth flashed upon him. He had been left in the +tomb! While kneeling on the farther side of the stone box, perhaps he +had fainted, and in the last solemn rites his absence had been +unnoticed. + +His first emotion was one of natural terror. But this passed as quickly +as it came. Life had ceased to be so very precious to him; and if it +were his fate to die at Julie's side, was not that the fulfilment of the +desire which he had expressed to himself a hundred times that morning? +What did it matter, a few years sooner or later? He must lay down the +burden at last. Why not then? A pang of self-reproach followed the +thought. Could he so lightly throw aside the love that had bent over his +cradle. The sacred name of mother rose involuntarily to his lips. Was it +not cowardly to yield up without a struggle the life which he should +guard for her sake? Was it not his duty to the living and the dead to +face the difficulties of his position, and overcome them if it were +within human power? + +With an organization as delicate as a woman's, he had that spirit which, +however sluggish in repose, can leap with a kind of exultation to +measure its strength with disaster. The vague fear of the supernatural, +that would affect most men in a similar situation, found no room in his +heart. He was simply shut in a chamber from which it was necessary that +he should obtain release within a given period. That this chamber +contained the body of the woman he loved, so far from adding to the +terror of the case, was a circumstance from which he drew consolation. +She was a beautiful white statue now. Her soul was far hence; and if +that pure spirit could return, would it not be to shield him with her +love? It was impossible that the place should not engender some thought +of the kind. He did not put the thought entirely from him as he rose to +his feet and stretched out his hands in the darkness; but his mind was +too healthy and practical to indulge long in such speculations. + +Philip chanced to have in his pocket a box of wax-tapers which smokers +use. After several ineffectual attempts, he succeeded in igniting one +against the dank wall, and by its momentary glare perceived that the +candle had been left in the tomb. This would serve him in examining the +fastenings of the vault. If he could force the inner door by any means, +and reach the grating, of which he had an indistinct recollection, he +might hope to make himself heard. But the oaken door was immovable, as +solid as the wall itself, into which it fitted air-tight. Even if he had +had the requisite tools, there were no fastenings to be removed: the +hinges were set on the outside. + +Having ascertained this, he replaced the candle on the floor, and leaned +against the wall thoughtfully, watching the blue fan of flame that +wavered to and fro, threatening to detach itself from the wick. "At all +events," he thought, "the place is ventilated." Suddenly Philip sprang +forward and extinguished the light. His existence depended on that +candle! + +He had read somewhere, in some account of shipwreck, how the survivors +had lived for days upon a few candles which one of the passengers had +insanely thrown into the long-boat. And here he had been burning away +his very life. + +By the transient illumination of one of the tapers, he looked at his +watch. It had stopped at eleven,--but at eleven that day, or the +preceding night? The funeral, he knew, had left the church at ten. How +many hours had passed since then? Of what duration had been his swoon? +Alas! it was no longer possible for him to measure those hours which +crawl like snails by the wretched, and fly like swallows over the happy. + +He picked up the candle, and seated himself on the stone steps. He was a +sanguine man, this Wentworth, but, as he weighed the chances of escape, +the prospect did not seem encouraging. Of course he would be missed. His +disappearance under the circumstances would surely alarm his friends; +they would instigate a search for him; but who would think of searching +for a live man in the cemetery of Montmartre? The Prefect of Police +would set a hundred intelligences at work to find him; the Seine might +be dragged, _les miserables_ turned over at the dead-house; a minute +description of him would be in every detective's pocket; and he--in M. +Dorine's family tomb! + +Yet, on the other hand, it was here he was last seen; from this point a +keen detective would naturally work up the case. Then might not the +undertaker return for the candlestick, probably not left by design? Or, +again, might not M. Dorine send fresh wreaths of flowers, to take the +place of those which now diffused a pungent, aromatic odor throughout +the chamber? Ah! what unlikely chances! But if one of these things did +not happen speedily, it had better never happen. How long could he keep +life in himself? + +With unaccelerated pulse, he quietly cut the half-burned candle into +four equal parts. "To-night," he meditated, "I will eat the first of +these pieces; to-morrow, the second; to-morrow evening, the third; the +next day, the fourth; and then--then I'll wait!" + +He had taken no breakfast that morning, unless a cup of coffee can be +called a breakfast. He had never been very hungry before. He was +ravenously hungry now. But he postponed the meal as long as practicable. +It must have been near midnight, according to his calculation, when he +determined to try the first of his four singular repasts. The bit of +white-wax was tasteless; but it served its purpose. + +His appetite for the time appeased, he found a new discomfort. The +humidity of the walls, and the wind that crept through the unseen +ventilator, chilled him to the bone. To keep walking was his only +resource. A sort of drowsiness, too, occasionally came over him. It took +all his will to fight it off. To sleep, he felt, was to die; and he had +made up his mind to live. + +Very strange fancies flitted through his head as he groped up and down +the stone floor of the dungeon, feeling his way along the wall to avoid +the sepulchres. Voices that had long been silent spoke words that had +long been forgotten; faces he had known in childhood grew palpable +against the dark. His whole life in detail was unrolled before him like +a panorama; the changes of a year, with its burden of love and death, +its sweets and its bitternesses, were epitomized in a single second. The +desire to sleep had left him. But the keen hunger came again. + +It must be near morning now, he mused; perhaps the sun is just gilding +the pinnacles and domes of the city; or, may be, a dull, drizzling rain +is beating on Paris, sobbing on these mounds above me. Paris! it seems +like a dream. Did I ever walk in its gay streets in the golden air? O +the delight and pain and passion of that sweet human life! + +Philip became conscious that the gloom, the silence, and the cold were +gradually conquering him. The feverish activity of his brain brought on +a reaction. He grew lethargic, he sunk down on the steps, and thought of +nothing. His hand fell by chance on one of the pieces of candle; he +grasped it and devoured it mechanically. This revived him. "How +strange," he thought, "that I am not thirsty. Is it possible that the +dampness of the walls, which I must inhale with every breath, has +supplied the need of water? Not a drop has passed my lips for two days, +and still I experience no thirst. That drowsiness, thank Heaven, has +gone. I think I was never wide awake until this hour. It would be an +anodyne like poison that could weigh down my eyelids. No doubt the dread +of sleep has something to do with this." + +The minutes were like hours. Now he walked as briskly as he dared up and +down the tomb; now he rested against the door. More than once he was +tempted to throw himself upon the stone coffin that held Julie, and make +no further struggle for his life. + +Only one piece of candle remained. He had eaten the third portion, not +to satisfy hunger, but from a precautionary motive. He had taken it as a +man takes some disagreeable drug upon the result of which hangs safety. +The time was rapidly approaching when even this poor substitute for +nourishment would be exhausted. He delayed that moment. He gave himself +a long fast this time. The half-inch of candle which he held in his hand +was a sacred thing to him. It was his last defence against death. + +At length, with such a sinking at heart as he had not known before, he +raised it to his lips. Then he paused, then he hurled the fragment +across the tomb, then the oaken door was flung open, and Philip, with +dazzled eyes, saw M. Dorine's form sharply defined against the blue sky. + +When they led him out, half blinded, into the broad daylight, M. Dorine +noticed that Philip's hair, which a short time since was as black as a +crow's wing, had actually turned gray in places. The man's eyes, too, +had faded; the darkness had spoiled their lustre. + +"And how long was he really confined in the tomb?" I asked, as Mr. +H----concluded the story. + +_"Just one hour and twenty minutes!"_ replied Mr. H----, smiling +blandly. + +As he spoke, the little sloops, with their sails all blown out like +white roses, came floating bravely into port, and Philip Wentworth +lounged by us, wearily, in the pleasant April sunshine. + + * * * * * + +Mr. H----'s narrative made a deep impression on me. Here was a man who +had undergone a strange ordeal. Here was a man whose sufferings were +unique. His was no threadbare experience. Eighty minutes had seemed like +two days to him! If he had really been immured two days in the tomb, the +story, from my point of view, would have lost its tragic element. + +After this it was but natural I should regard Mr. Wentworth with +deepened interest. As I met him from day to day, passing through the +Common with that same abstracted air, there was something in his +loneliness which touched me. I wondered that I had not before read in +his pale meditative face some such sad history as Mr. H---- had confided +to me. I formed the resolution of speaking to him, though with what +purpose was not very clear to my mind. One May morning we met at the +intersection of two paths. He courteously halted to allow me the +precedence. + +"Mr. Wentworth," I began, "I--" + +He interrupted me. + +"My name, sir," he said, in an off-hand manner, "is Jones." + +"Jo-Jo-Jones!" I gasped. + +"Not Jo Jones," he returned coldly, "Frederick." + +Mr. Jones, or whatever his name is, will never know, unless he reads +these pages, why a man accosted him one morning as "Mr. Wentworth," and +then abruptly rushed down the nearest path, and disappeared in the +crowd. + +The fact is, I had been duped by Mr. H----. Mr. H---- occasionally +contributes a story to the magazines. He had actually tried the effect +of one of his romances on me! + +My hero, as I subsequently learned, is no hero at all, but a commonplace +young man who has some connection with the building of that pretty +granite bridge which will shortly span the crooked little lake in the +Public Garden. + +When I think of the cool ingenuity and readiness with which Mr. +H----built up his airy fabric on my credulity, I am half inclined to +laugh; though I feel not slightly irritated at having been the +unresisting victim of his Black Art. + + + + +FREEDOM IN BRAZIL. + + + With clearer light, Cross of the South, shine forth + In blue Brazilian skies; + And thou, O river, cleaving half the earth + From sunset to sunrise, + From the great mountains to the Atlantic waves + Thy joy's long anthem pour. + Yet a few days (God make them less!) and slaves + Shall shame thy pride no more. + No fettered feet thy shaded margins press; + But all men shall walk free + Where thou, the high-priest of the wilderness, + Hast wedded sea to sea. + + And thou, great-hearted ruler, through whose mouth + The word of God is said, + Once more, "Let there be light!"--Son of the South, + Lift up thy honored head, + Wear unashamed a crown by thy desert + More than by birth thy own, + Careless of watch and ward; thou art begirt + By grateful hearts alone. + The moated wall and battle-ship may fail, + But safe shall justice prove; + Stronger than greaves of brass or iron mail + The panoply of love. + + Crowned doubly by man's blessing and God's grace, + Thy future is secure; + Who frees a people makes his statue's place + In Time's Valhalla sure. + Lo! from his Neva's banks the Scythian Czar + Stretches to thee his hand + Who, with the pencil of the Northern star, + Wrote freedom on his land. + And he whose grave is holy by our calm + And prairied Sangamon, + From his gaunt hand shall drop the martyr's palm + To greet thee with "Well done!" + + And thou, O Earth, with smiles thy face make sweet, + And let thy wail be stilled, + To hear the Muse of prophecy repeat + Her promise half fulfilled. + The Voice that spake at Nazareth speaks still, + No sound thereof hath died; + Alike thy hope and Heaven's eternal will + Shall yet be satisfied. + The years are slow, the vision tarrieth long, + And far the end may be; + But, one by one, the fiends of ancient wrong + Go out and leave thee free. + + + + +MY VISIT TO SYBARIS. + + +It is a great while since I first took an interest in Sybaris. Sybarites +have a bad name. But before I had heard of them anywhere else, I had +painfully looked out the words in the three or four precious anecdotes +about Sybaris in the old Greek Reader; and I had made up my boy's mind +about the Sybarites. When I came to know the name they had got +elsewhere, I could not but say that the world had been very unjust to +them! + +O dear! I can see it now,--the old Latin school-room, where we used to +sit, and hammer over that Greek, after the small boys had gone. They +went at eleven; we--because we were twelve years old--stayed till +twelve. From eleven to twelve we sat, with only those small boys who had +been "kept" for their sins, and Mr. Dillaway. The room was long and +narrow; how long and how narrow, you may see, if you will go and examine +M. Duchesne's model of "Boston as it was," and pay twenty-five cents to +the Richmond schools. For all this is of the past; and in the same spot +in space where once a month the Examiner Club now meets at Parker's, and +discusses the difference between religion and superstition, the folly of +copyright, and the origin of things, the boys who did not then belong to +the Examiner Club, say Fox and Clarke and Furness and Waldo Emerson, +thumbed their Greek Readers in "Boston as it was," and learned the truth +about Sybaris! A long, narrow room, I say, whose walls, when I knew them +first, were of that tawny orange wash which is appropriated to kitchens. +But by a master stroke of Mr. Dillaway's these walls were made lilac or +purple one summer vacation. We sat, to recite, on long settees, +pea-green in color, which would teeter slightly on the well-worn floor. +There, for an hour daily, while brighter boys than I recited, I sat an +hour musing, looking at the immense Jacobs's Greek Reader, and waiting +my turn to come. If you did not look off your book much, no harm came to +you. So, in the hour, you got fifty-three minutes and a few odd seconds +of day-dream, for six minutes and two thirds of reciting, unless, which +was unusual, some fellow above you broke down, and a question passed +along of a sudden recalled you to modern life. I have been sitting on +that old green settee, and at the same time riding on horseback in +Virginia, through an open wooded country, with one of Lord Fairfax's +grandsons and two pretty cousins of his, and a fallow deer has just +appeared in the distance, when, by the failure of Hutchinson or Wheeler, +just above me, poor Mr. Dillaway has had to ask me, "Ingham, what verbs +omit the reduplication?" Talk of war! Where is versatility, otherwise +called presence of mind, so needed as in recitation at a public school? + +Well, there, I say, I made acquaintance with Sybaris. Nay, strictly +speaking, my first visits to Sybaris were made there and then. What the +Greek Reader tells of Sybaris is in three or four anecdotes, woven into +that strange, incoherent patchwork of "Geography." In that place are +patched together a statement of Strabo and one of Athenaeus about two +things in Sybaris which may have belonged some eight hundred years +apart. But what of that to a school-boy! Will your descendants, dear +reader, in the year 3579 A. D., be much troubled, if, in the English +Reader of their day, Queen Victoria shall be made to drink Spartan black +broth with William the Conqueror out of a conch-shell in New Zealand? + +With regard to Sybaris, then, the old Jacobs's Greek Reader tells the +following stories: "The Sybarites were distinguished for luxury. They +did not permit the trades which made a loud noise, such as those of +brass-workers, carpenters, and the like, to be carried on in the heart +of the city, so that their sleep might be wholly undisturbed by +noise.... And a Sybarite who had gone to Lacedaemon, and had been invited +to the public meal, after he had sat on their wooden benches and +partaken of their fare, said that he had been astonished at the +fearlessness of the Lacedaemonians when he knew it only by report; but +now that he had seen them, he thought that they did not excel other men, +for he thought that any brave man had much rather die than be obliged to +live such a life as they did." Then there is another story, among the +"miscellaneous anecdotes," of a Sybarite who was asked if he had slept +well. He said, No, that he believed he had a crumpled rose-leaf under +him in the night. And there is yet another, of one of them who said that +it made his back ache to see another man digging. + +I have asked Polly, as I write, to look in Mark Lemon's Jest-Book for +these stories. They are not in the index there. But I dare say they are +in Cotton Mather and Jeremy Taylor. Any way, they are bits of very cheap +Greek. Now it is on these stories that the reputation of the Sybarites +in modern times appears to depend. + +Now look at them. This Sybarite at Sparta said, that in war death was +often easier than the hardships of life. Well, is not that true? Have +not thousands of brave men said it? When the English and French got +themselves established on the wrong side of Sebastopol, what did that +engineer officer of the French say to somebody who came to inspect his +works? He was talking of St. Arnaud, their first commander. "Cunning +dog," said he, "he went and died." Death was easier than life. But +nobody ever said he was a coward or effeminate because he said this. +Why, if Mr. Fields would permit an excursus in twelve numbers here, on +this theme, we would defer Sybaris to the 1st of April, 1868, while we +illustrated the Sybarite's manly epigram, which these stupid Spartans +could only gape at, but could not understand. + +Then take the rose-leaf story. Suppose by good luck you were +breakfasting with General Grant, or Pelissier, or the Duke of +Wellington. Suppose you said, "I hope you slept well," and the great +soldier said, "No, I did not; I think a rose-leaf must have stood up +edgewise under me." Would you go off and say in your book of travels +that the Americans, or the French, or the English are all effeminate +pleasure-seekers, because one of them made this nice little joke? Would +you like to have the name "American" go down to all time, defined as +Webster[B] defines Sybarite? + + A-M[)E]R'I-CAN, _n._ [Fr. _Americain_, Lat. _Americanus_, from + Lat. _America_, a continent noted for the effeminacy and + voluptuousness of its inhabitants.] A person devoted to luxury + and pleasure. + +Should you think that was quite fair for your great-grandson's +grandson's descendant in the twenty-seventh remove to read, who is going +to be instructed about Queen Victoria and William the Conqueror? + +Worst of all, and most frequently quoted, is the story of the +coppersmiths. The Sybarites, it is said, ordered that the coppersmiths +and brass-founders should all reside in one part of the city, and bang +their respective metals where the neighbors had voluntarily chosen to +listen to banging. What if they did? Does not every manufacturing city +practically do the same thing? What did Nicholas Tillinghast use to say +to the boys and girls at Bridgewater? "The tendency of cities is to +resolve themselves into order." + +Is not Wall Street at this hour a street of bankers? Is not the Boston +Pearl Street a street of leather men? Is not the bridge at Florence +given over to jewellers? Was not my valise, there, bought in Rome at the +street of trunk-makers? Do not all booksellers like to huddle together +as long as they can? And when Ticknor and Fields move a few inches from +Washington Street to Tremont Street, do not Russell and Bates, and +Childs and Jenks, and De Vries and Ibarra, follow them as soon as the +shops can be got ready? + +"But it is the motive," pipes up the old gray ghost of propriety, who +started this abuse of the Sybarites in some stupid Spartan black-broth +shop (English that for _cafe_), two thousand two hundred and twenty-two +years ago,--which ghost I am now belaboring,--"it is the motive. The +Sybarites moved the brass-founders, because they wanted to sleep after +the brass-founders got up in the morning." What if they did, you old rat +in the arras? Is there any law, human or divine, which says that at one +and the same hour all men shall rise from bed in this world? My +excellent milkman, Mr. Whit, rises from bed daily at two o'clock. If he +does not, my family, including Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts, will +not have their fresh milk at 7.37, at which time we breakfast or pretend +to. But because he rises at two, must we all rise at two, and sit +wretchedly whining on our respective camp-stools, waiting for Mr. Whit +to arrive with the grateful beverage? Many is the time, when I have been +watching with a sick child at five in a summer morning, when the little +fellow had just dropped into a grateful morning doze, that I have +listened and waited, dreading the arrival of the Providence morning +express. Because I knew that, a mile and a half out of Boston, the +engine would begin to blow its shrill whistle, for the purpose, I +believe, of calling the Boston station-men to their duty. Three or four +minutes of that _skre-e-e-e_ must there be, as that train swept by our +end of the town. And hoping and wishing never did any good; the train +would come, and the child would wake. Is not that a magnificent power +for one engine-man to have over the morning rest of thirty thousand +sleeping people, because you, old Spartan croaker, who can't sleep easy +underground it seems, want to have everybody waked up at the same hour +in the morning. When I hear that whistle, and the fifty other whistles +of the factories that have since followed its wayward and unlicensed +example, I have wished more than once that we had in Boston a little +more of the firm government of Sybaris. + +For if, as it would appear from these instances, Sybaris were a city +which grew to wealth and strength by the recognition of the personal +rights of each individual in the state,--if Sybaris were a republic, +where the individual was respected, had his rights, and was not left to +the average chances of the majority of men,--then Sybaris had found out +something which no modern city has found out, and which it is a pity we +have all forgotten. + +I do not say that I went through all this speculation at the Latin +school. I got no further there than to see that the Sybarites had got a +very bad name, and that the causes did not appear in the Greek Reader. I +supposed there were causes somewhere, which it was not proper to put +into the Greek Reader. Perhaps there were. But if there were, I have +never found them,--not being indeed very well acquainted with the lines +of reading in which those who wanted to find them should look for them. + + * * * * * + +What I did find of Sybaris, when I could read Greek rather more easily, +and could get access to some decent atlases, was briefly this. + +Well forward in the hollow of the arched foot of the boot of Italy, two +little rivers run into the Gulf of Tarentum. One was named Crathis, one +was named Sybaris. Here stood the ancient city of Sybaris, founded, +about the time of Romulus or Numa Pompilius, by a colony from Greece. +For two hundred years and more,--almost as long, dear Atlantic, as your +beloved Boston has subsisted,--Sybaris flourished, and was the Rome of +that region, ruling it from sea to sea. + +It was the capital of four states,--a sort of New England, if you will +observe,--and could send three hundred thousand armed men into the +field. The walls of the city were six miles in circumference, while the +suburbs covered the banks of the Crathis for a space of seven miles. At +last the neighboring state of Crotona, under the lead of Milon the +Athlete (he of the calf and ox and split log), the Heenan or John +Morrissey of his day, vanquished the more refined Sybarites, turned the +waters of the Crathis upon their prosperous city, and destroyed it. But +the Sybarites had had that thing happen too often to be discouraged. +Five times, say the historians, had Sybaris been destroyed, and five +times they built it up again. This time the Athenians sent ten vessels, +with men to help them, under Lampon and Xenocritus. And they, with those +who stood by the wreck, gave their new city the name of Thurii. Among +the new colonists were Herodotus, and Lysias the orator, who was then a +boy. The spirit that had given Sybaris its comfort and its immense +population appeared in the legislation of the new state. It received its +laws from CHARONDAS, one of the noblest legislators of the world. Study +these laws and you will see that in the young Sybaris the individual had +his rights, which the public preserved for him, though he were wholly in +a minority. There is an evident determination that a man shall live +while he lives, and that, too, in no sensual interpretation of the +words. + +Of the laws made by Charondas for the new Sybaris a few are preserved. + +1. A calumniator was marched round the city in disgrace, crowned with +tamarisk. "In consequence," says the Scholiast, "they all left the +city." O for such a result, from whatever legislation, in our modern +Pedlingtons, great or little! + +2. All persons were forbidden to associate with the bad. + +3. "He made another law, better than these, and neglected by the older +legislators. For he enacted that all the sons of the citizens should be +instructed in letters, the city paying the salaries of the teachers. For +he held that the poor, not being able to pay their teachers from their +own property, would be deprived of the most valuable discipline." There +is FREE EDUCATION for you, two thousand and seventy-six years before the +date of your first Massachusetts free school; and the theory of free +education completely stated. + +4. Deserters or cowards in battle had to sit in women's dresses in the +Forum three days. + +5. With regard to the amendment of laws, any man or woman who moved one +did it with a noose round his neck, and was hanged if the people refused +it. Only three laws were ever amended, therefore, all which are recorded +in the history. Observe that the women might move amendments,--and think +of the simplicity of legislation! + +6. The law provided for cash payments, and the government gave no +protection for those who sold on credit. + +7. Their communication with other nations was perfectly free. + +I might give more instances. I should like to tell some of the curious +stories which illustrate this simple legislation. Poor Charondas himself +fell a victim to it. One of the laws provided that no man should wear a +sword into the public assembly. No Cromwells there! Unfortunately, by +accident, Charondas wore his own there one day. Brave fellow! when the +fault was pointed out, he killed himself with it. + +Now do you wonder that a city where there were no calumniators, no long +credit, no bills at the grocers, no fighting at town meetings, no +amendments to the laws, no intentional and open association with +profligates, and where everybody was educated by the state to letters, +proved a comfortable place to live in? It is of the old Sybaris that the +coppersmith and the rose-leaf stories are told; and it was the new +Sybaris that made the laws. But do you not see that there is one spirit +in the whole? Here was a nation which believed that the highest work of +a nation was to train its people. It did not believe in fight, like +Milon or Heenan or the old Spartans; it did not believe in legislation, +like Massachusetts and New York; it did not believe in commerce, like +Carthage and England. It believed in men and women. It respected men and +women. It educated men and women. It gave their rights to men and women. +And so the Spartans called them effeminate. And the Greek Reader made +fun of them. But perhaps the people who lived there were indifferent to +the opinions of the Spartans and of the Greek Reader. Herodotus lived +there till he died; wrote his history there, among other things. Lysias, +the orator, took part in the administration. It is not from them, you +may be sure, that you get the anecdotes which ridicule the old city of +Sybaris! + +You and I would probably be satisfied with such company as that of +Herodotus and Charondas and Lysias. So we hunt the history down to see +if there may be lodgings to let there this summer, but only to find that +it all pales out in the ignorance of our modern days. The name gets +changed into Lupiae; but there it turns out that Pausanias made "a +strange mistake," and should have written Copia,--which was perhaps +Cossa, or sometimes Cosa. Pyrrhus appears, and Hadrian rebuilds +something, and the "Oltramontani," whoever they may have been, ravage +it, and finally the Saracens fire and sack it; and so, in the latest +Italian itinerary you can find, there is no post-road goes near it, only +a _strada rotabile_ (wheel-track) upon the hills; and, alas! even the +_rotabile_ gives way at last, and all the map will own to is a _strada +pedonale_, or foot-path. But the map is of the less consequence, when +you find that the man who edited it had no later dates than the +beginning of the last century, when the family of Serra had transferred +the title to Sybaris to a Genoese family without a name, who received +from it forty thousand ducats yearly, and would have received more, if +their agents had been more faithful. There the place fades out of +history, and you find in your Swinburne, "that the locality has _never_ +been thoroughly examined"; in your Smith's Dictionary, that "the whole +subject is very obscure, and a careful examination still much needed"; +in the Cyclopaedia, that the site of Sybaris is lost. Craven saw the +rivers Crathis and Sybaris. He seems not to have seen the wall of +Sybaris, which he supposed to be under water. He does say of Cassano, +the nearest town he came to, that "no other spot can boast of such +advantages." In short, no man living who has written any book about it +dares say that anybody has looked upon the certain site of Sybaris for +more than a hundred years.[C] If a man wanted to write a mythical story, +where could he find a better scene? + +Now is not this a very remarkable thing? Here was a city, which, under +its two names of Sybaris or of Thurium, was for centuries the regnant +city of all that part of the world. It could call into the field three +hundred thousand men,--an army enough larger than Athens ever furnished, +or Sparta. It was a far more populous and powerful state than ever +Athens was, or Sparta, or the whole of Hellas. It invented and carried +into effect free popular education,--a gift to the administration of +free government larger than ever Rome rendered. It received and honored +Charondas, the great practical legislator, from whose laws no man shall +say how much has trickled down into the Code Napoleon or the Revised +Statutes of New York, through the humble studies of the Roman jurists. +It maintained in peace, prosperity, happiness, and, as its maligners +say, in comfort, an immense population. If they had not been as +comfortable as they were,--if a tenth part of them had received alms +every year, and a tenth part were flogged in the public schools every +year,--if one in forty had been sent to prison every year, as in the +happy city which publishes the "Atlantic Monthly,"--then Sybaris, +perhaps, would never have got its bad name for luxury. Such a city +lived, flourished, ruled, for hundreds of years. Of such a city all that +you know now with certainty is, that its coin is "the most beautifully +finished in the cabinets of ancient coinage"; and that no traveller even +pretends to be sure that he has been to the site of it for more than a +hundred years. That speaks well for your nineteenth century. + +Now the reader who has come thus far will understand that I, having come +thus far, in twenty-odd years since those days of teetering on the +pea-green settee, had always kept Sybaris in the background of my head, +as a problem to be solved, and an inquiry to be followed to its +completion. There could hardly have been a man in the world better +satisfied than I to be the hero of the adventure which I am now about to +describe. + + * * * * * + +If the reader remembers anything about Garibaldi's triumphal entry into +Porto Cavallo in Sicily in the spring of 1859, he will remember that, +between the months of March and April in that year, the great chieftain +made, in that wretched little fishing haven, a long pause, which was not +at the time understood by the journals or by their military critics, and +which, indeed, to this hour has never been publicly explained. I suppose +I know as much about it as any man now living. But I am not writing +Garibaldi's memoirs, nor, indeed, my own, excepting so far as they +relate to Sybaris; and it is strictly nobody's business to inquire as to +that detention, unless it interest the ex-king of Naples, who may write +to me, if he chooses, addressing Frederic Ingham, Esq., Waterville, N. +H. Nor is it anybody's business how long I had then been on Garibaldi's +staff. From the number of his staff-officers who have since visited me +in America, very much in want of a pair of pantaloons, or a ticket to +New York, or something with which they might buy a glass of whiskey, I +should think that his staff alone must have made up a much more +considerable army than Naples, or even Sybaris, ever brought into the +field. But where these men were when I was with him, I do not know. I +only know that there was but a handful of us then, hard-worked fellows, +good-natured, and not above our work. Of its military details we knew +wretchedly little. But as we had no artillery, ignorance was less +dangerous in the chief of artillery; as we had no maps to draw, poor +draughtsmanship did not much embarrass the engineer in chief. For me, I +was nothing but an aid, and I was glad to do anything that fell to me as +well as I knew how. And, as usual in human life, I found that a cool +head, a steady resolve, a concentrated purpose, and an unselfish +readiness to obey, carried me a great way. I listened instead of +talking, and thus got a reputation for knowing a great deal. When the +time to act came, I acted without waiting for the wave to recede; and +thus I sprang into many a boat dry-shod, while people who believed in +what is popularly called prudence missed their chance, and either lost +the boat or fell into the water. + +This is by the way. It was under these circumstances that I received my +orders, wholly secret and unexpected, to take a boat at once, pass the +straits, and cross the Bay of Tarentum, to communicate at Gallipoli +with--no matter whom. Perhaps I was going to the "Castle of Otranto." A +hundred years hence anybody who chooses will know. Meanwhile, if there +should be a reaction in Otranto, I do not choose to shorten anybody's +neck for him. + +Well, it was five in the afternoon,--near sundown at that season. I +went to dear old Frank Chaney,--the jolliest of jolly Englishmen, who +was acting quartermaster-general,--and told him I must have +transportation. I can see him and hear him now,--as he sat on his barrel +head, smoked his vile Tunisian tobacco in his beloved short meerschaum, +which was left to him ever since he was at Bonn, as he pretended, a +student with Prince Albert. He did not swear,--I don't think he ever +did. But he looked perplexed enough to swear. And very droll was the +twinkle of his eye. The truth was, that every sort of a thing that would +sail, and every wretch of a fisherman that could sail her, had been, as +he knew, and as I knew, sent off that very morning to rendezvous at +Carrara, for the contingent which we were hoping had slipped through +Cavour's pretended neutrality. And here was an order for him to furnish +me "transportation" in exactly the opposite direction. + +"Do you know of anything, yourself, Fred?" said he. + +"Not a coffin," said I. + +"Did the chief suggest anything?" + +"Not a nutshell," said I. + +"Could not you go by telegraph?" said Frank, pointing up to the dumb old +semaphore in whose tower he had established himself. "Or has not the +chief got a wishing carpet? Or can't you ride to Gallipoli? Here are +some excellent white-tailed mules, good enough for Pindar, whom +Colvocoressis has just brought in from the monastery. 'Transportation +for one!' Is there anything to be brought back? Nitre, powder, lead, +junk, hard-tack, mules, horses, pigs, _polenta_, or _olla podrida_, or +other of the stores of war?" + +No; there was nothing to bring back except myself. Lucky enough if I +came back to tell my own story. And so we walked up on the tower deck to +take a look. + +Blessed St. Lazarus, chief of Naples and of beggars! a little felucca +was just rounding the Horse Head and coming into the bay, wing-wing. The +fishermen in her had no thought that they were ever going to get into +the Atlantic. May be they had never heard of the Ocean or of the +Monthly. Can that be possible? Frank nodded, and I. He filled up with +more Tunisian, beckoned to an orderly, and we walked down to the +landing-jetty to meet them. + +_"Viva Italia!"_ shouted Frank, as they drew near enough to hear. + +_"Viva Garibaldi!"_ cried the skipper, as he let his sheet fly and +rounded to the well-worn stones. A good voyage had they made of it, he +and his two brown, ragged boys. Large fish and small, pink fish, blue, +yellow, orange, striped fish and mottled, wriggled together, and flapped +their tails in the well of the little boat. There were even too many to +lie there and wriggle. The bottom of the boat was well covered with +them, and, if she had not shipped waves enough to keep them cool, the +boy Battista had bailed a plenty on them. Father and son hurried on +shore, and Battista on board began to fling the scaly fellows out to +them. + +A very small craft it was to double all those capes in, run the straits, +and stretch across the bay. If it had been mine "to make reply," I +should undoubtedly have made this, that I would see the quartermaster +hanged, and his superiors, before I risked myself in any such +rattletrap. But as, unfortunately, it was mine to go where I was sent, I +merely set the orderly to throwing out fish with the boys, and began to +talk with the father. + +Queer enough, just at that moment, there came over me the feeling that, +as a graduate of the University, it was my duty to put up those red, +white, and blue scaly fellows, who were flopping about there so briskly, +and send them in alcohol to Agassiz. But there are so many duties of +that kind which one neglects in a hard-worked world! As a graduate, it +is my duty to send annually to the College Librarian a list of all the +graduates who have died in the town I live in, with their fathers' and +mothers' names, and the motives that led them to College, with anecdotes +of their career, and the date of their death. There are two thousand +three hundred and forty-five of them I believe, and I have never sent +one half-anecdote about one! Such failure in duty made me grimly smile +as I omitted to stop and put up these fish in alcohol, and as I plied +the unconscious skipper with inquiries about his boat. "Had she ever +been outside?" "O signor, she had been outside this very day. You cannot +catch _tonno_ till you have passed both capes,--least of all such fine +fish as that is,"--and he kicked the poor wretch. Can it be true, as +C---- says, that those dying flaps of theirs, are exquisite luxury to +them, because for the first time they have their fill of oxygen? "Had he +ever been beyond Peloro?" "O yes, signor; my wife, Caterina, was herself +from Messina,"--and on great saints' days they had gone there often. +Poor fellow, his great saint's day sealed his fate. I nodded to +Frank,--Frank nodded to me,--and Frank blandly informed him that, by +order of General Garibaldi, he would take the gentleman at once on +board, pass the strait with him, "and then go where he tells you." + +The Southern Italian has the reputation, derived from Tom Moore, of +being a coward. When I used to speak at school, + + "Ay, down to the dust with them,--slaves as they are!"-- + +stamping my foot at "dust," I certainly thought they were a very mean +crew. But I dare say that Neapolitan school-boys have some similar +school piece about the risings of Tom Moore's countrymen, which +certainly have not been much more successful than the poor little +Neapolitan revolution which he was pleased to satirize. Somehow or +other, Victor Emanuel is, at this hour, king of Naples. Coward or not, +this fine fellow of a fisherman did not flinch. It is my private opinion +that he was not nearly as much afraid of the enterprise as I was. I made +this observation at the moment with some satisfaction, sent Frank's man +up to my lodgings with a note ordering my own traps sent down, and in an +hour we were stretching out, under the twilight, across the little bay. + +No! I spare you the voyage. Sybaris is what we are after, all this time, +if we can only get there. Very easy it would be for me to give you cheap +scholarship from the AEneid, about Palinurus and Scylla and Charybdis. +Neither Scylla nor Charybdis bothered me,--as we passed wing-wing +between them before a smart north wind. I had a little Hunter's Virgil +with me, and read the whole voyage,--and confused Battista utterly by +trying to make him remember something about Palinuro, of whom he had +never heard. It was much as I afterwards asked my negro waiter at Fort +Monroe about General Washington at Yorktown. "Never heard of him, +sir,--was he in the Regular army?" So Battista thought Palinuro must +have fished in the Italian fleet, with which the Sicilian boatmen were +not well acquainted. Messina made no objections to us. Perhaps, if the +sloop of war which lay there had known who was lying in the boat under +her guns, I might not be writing these words to-day. Battista went +ashore, got lemons, macaroni, hard bread, polenta, for themselves, the +_Giornale di Messina_ for me, and more Tunisian; and, not to lose that +splendid breeze, we cracked on all day, passed Reggio, hugged the shore +bravely, though it was rough, ran close under those cliffs which are the +very end of the Apennines,--will it shock the modest reader if I say the +very toe-nails of the Italian foot?--hauled more and more eastward, made +Spartivento blue in the distance, made it purple, made it brown, made it +green, still running admirably,--ten knots an hour we must have got +between four and five that afternoon,--and by the time the lighthouse at +Spartivento was well ablaze we were abreast of it, and might begin to +haul more northward, so that, though we had a long course before us, we +should at last be sailing almost directly towards our voyage's end, +Gallipoli. + +At that moment--as in any sea often happens, if you come out from the +more land-locked channel into the larger body of water--the wind +appeared to change. Really, I suppose, we came into the steady southwest +wind which had probably been drawing all day up toward the Adriatic. In +two hours more we made the lighthouse of Stilo, and I was then tired +enough to crawl down into the fearfully smelling little cuddy, and, +wrapping Battista's heavy storm-jacket round my feet, I caught some sort +of sleep. + +But not for very long. I struck my watch at three in the morning. And +the air was so unworthy of that name,--it was such a thick paste, +seeming to me more like a mixture of tar and oil and fresh fish and +decayed fish and bilge-water than air itself,--that I voted three +morning, and crawled up into the clear starlight,--how wonderful it was, +and the fresh wet breeze that washed my face so cheerily!--and I bade +Battista take his turn below, while I would lie there and mind the helm. +If--if he had done what I proposed, I suppose I should not be writing +these lines; but his father, good fellow, said: "No, signor, not yet. We +leave the shore now for the broad bay, you see; and if the wind haul +southward, we may need to go on the other tack. We will all stay here, +till we see what the deep-sea wind may be." So we lay there, humming, +singing, and telling stories, still this rampant southwest wind behind, +as if all the powers of the Mediterranean meant to favor my mission to +Gallipoli. The boat was now running straight before it. We stretched out +bravely into the gulf; but, before the wind, it was astonishing how +easily the lugger ran. He said to me at last, however, that on that +course we were running to leeward of our object; but that it was the +best point for his boat, and if the wind held, he would keep on so an +hour longer, and trust to the land breeze in the morning to run down the +opposite shore of the bay. + +"If" again. The wind did not keep on. Either the pole-star, and the +dipper, and all the rest of them, had rebelled and were drifting +westward,--and so it seemed; or this steady southwest gale was giving +out; or, as I said before, we had come into the sweep of a current even +stronger, pouring from the Levantine shores of the Mediterranean full up +the Gulf of Tarentum. Not ten minutes after the skipper spoke, it was +clear enough to both of us that the boat must go about, whether we +wanted to or not, and we waked the other boy, to send him forward, +before we accepted the necessity. Half asleep, he got up, courteously +declined my effort to help him by me as he crossed the boat, stepped +round on the gunwale behind me as I sat, and then, either in a lurch or +in some misstep, caught his foot in the tiller as his father held it +firm, and pitched down directly behind Battista himself, and, as I +thought, into the sea. I sprang to leeward to throw something after him, +and found him in the sea indeed, but hanging by both hands to the +gunwale, safe enough, and in a minute, with Battista's help and mine, on +board again. I remember how pleased I was that his father did not swear +at him, but only laughed prettily, and bade him be quick, and step +forward; and then, turning to the helm, which he had left free for the +moment, he did not swear indeed, but he did cry "Santa Madre!" when he +found there was no tiller there. The boy's foot had fairly wrenched it, +not only from his father's hand, but from the rudder-head,--and it was +gone! + +We held the old fellow firmly by his feet and legs, as he lay over the +stern of the boat, head down, examining the condition of the +rudder-head. The report was not favorable. I renewed the investigation +myself in the same uncomfortable attitude. The phosphorescence of the +sea was but an unsteady light, but light enough there was to reveal what +daylight made hardly more certain,--that the wrench which had been given +to the rotten old fixtures, shaky enough at best, had split the head of +the rudder, so that the pintle hung but loosely in its bed, and that +there was nothing available for us to rig a jury-tiller on. This +discovery, as it became more and more clear to each of us four in +succession, abated successively the volleys of advice which we were +offering, and sent us back to our more quiet "Santa Madres" or to +meditations on "what was next to best." + +Meanwhile the boat was flying, under the sail she had before, straight +before the wind, up the Gulf of Tarentum. + +If you cannot have what you like, it is best, in a finite world, to like +what you have. And while the old man brought up from the cuddy his +wretched and worthless stock of staves, rope-ends, and bits of iron, and +contemplated them ruefully, as if asking them which would like to assume +the shape of a rudder-head and tiller, if his fairy godmother would +appear on the top of the mast for a moment, I was plying the boys with +questions,--what would happen to us if we held on at this tearing rate, +and rushed up the bay to the head thereof. The boys knew no more than +they knew of Palinuro. Far enough, indeed, were we from their parish. +The old man at last laid down the bit of brass which he had saved from +some old waif, and listened to me as I pointed out to them on my map the +course we were making, and, without answering me a word, fell on his +knees and broke into most voluble prayer,--only interrupted by sobs of +undisguised agony. The boys were almost as much surprised as I was. And +as he prayed and sobbed, the boat rushed on! + +Santa Madre, San Giovanni, and Sant' Antonio,--we needed all their help, +if it were only to keep him quiet; and when at last he rose from his +knees, and came to himself enough to tend the sheets a little, I asked, +as modestly as I could, what put this keen edge on his grief or his +devotions. Then came such stories of hobgoblins, witches, devils, +giants, elves, and fairies, at this head of the bay!--no man ever +returned who landed there; his father and his father's father had +charged him, and his brothers and his cousins, never to be lured to +make a voyage there, and never to run for those coves, though schools of +golden fish should lead the way. It was not till this moment, that, +trying to make him look upon the map, I read myself there the words, at +the mouth of the Crathis River, "Sybaris Ruine." + +Surely enough, this howling Euroclydon--for Euroclydon it now was--was +bearing me and mine directly to Sybaris! + +And here was this devout old fisherman confirming the words of Smith's +Dictionary, when it said that nobody had been there and returned, for +generation upon generation. + +At a dozen knots an hour, as things were, I was going to Sybaris! Nor +was I many hours from it. For at that moment we cannot have been more +than five-and-thirty miles from the beach, where, in less than four +hours, Euroclydon flung us on shore. + +The memory of the old green settees, and of Hutchinson and Wheeler and +the other Latin-school boys, sustained me beneath the calamity which +impended. Nor do I think at heart the boys felt so bad as their father +about the djins and the devils, the powers of the earth and the powers +of the air. Is there, perhaps, in the youthful mind, rather a passion +for "seeing the folly" of life a little in that direction? None the less +did we join him in rigging out the longest sweep we had aft, lashing it +tight under the little rail which we had been leaning on, and trying +gentle experiments, how far this extemporized rudder might bring the +boat round to the wind. Nonsense the whole. By that time Euroclydon was +on us, so that I would never have tried to put her about if we had had +the best gear I ever handled, and our experiments only succeeded far +enough to show that we were as utterly powerless as men could be. +Meanwhile day was just beginning to break. I soothed the old man with +such devout expressions as heretic might venture. I tried to turn him +from the coming evil to the present necessity. I counselled with him +whether it might not be safer to take in sail and drift along. But from +this he dissented. Time enough to take in sail when we knew what shore +we were coming to. He had no kedge or grapple or cord, indeed, that +would pretend to hold this boat against this gale. We would beach her, +if it pleased the Virgin; and if we could not,--shaking his head,--why, +that would please the Virgin, too. + +And so Euroclydon hurried us on to Sybaris. + +The sun rose, O how magnificently! Is there anywhere to see sunrise like +the Mediterranean? And if one may not be on the top of Katahdin, is +there any place for sunrise like the very level of the sea? Already the +Calabrian mountains of our western horizon were gray against the sky. +One or another of us was forward all the time, trying to make out by +what slopes the hills descended to the sea. Was it cliff of basalt, or +was it reedy swamp, that was to receive us. I insisted at last on his +reducing sail. For I felt sure that he was driving on under a sort of +fatality which made him dare the worst. I was wholly right, for the boat +now rose easier on the water, and was much more dry. + +Perhaps the wind flagged a little as the sun rose. At all events, he +took courage, which I had never lost. I made his boy find us some +oranges. I made them laugh by eating their cold polenta with them. I +even made him confess, when I called him aft and sent Battista forward, +that the shore we were nearing looked low. For we were near enough now +to see stone pines and chestnut-trees. Did anybody see the towers of +Sybaris? + +Not a tower! But, on the other hand, not a gnome, witch, Norna's Head, +or other intimation of the underworld. The shore looked like many other +Italian shores. It looked not very unlike what we Yankees call +salt-marsh. At all events, we should not break our heads against a wall! +Nor will I draw out the story of our anxieties, varying as the waves +did on which we rose and fell so easily. As she forged on, it was clear +at last that to some wanderers, at least, Sybaris had some hospitality. +A long, low spit made out into the sea, with never a house on it, but +brown with storm-worn shrubs, above the line of which were the +stone-pines and chestnuts which had first given character to the shore. +Hard for us, if we had been flung on the outside of this spit. But we +were not. Else I had not been writing here to-day. We passed it by fifty +fathom clear. Of course under its lee was our harbor. Battista let go +the halyards in a moment, and the wet sails came rattling down. The old +man, the boy, Battista, and I seized the best sweeps he had left. Two of +us at each, working on the same side, we brought her head round as fast +as she would bear it in that fearful sea. Inch by inch we wrought along +to the smoother water, and breathed free at last, as we came under the +partial protection of the friendly shore. + +Battista and his brother then hauled up the sail enough to give such +headway to the boat as we thought our sweeps would control. And we crept +along the shore for an hour, seeing nothing but reeds, and now and then +a distant buffalo, when at last a very hard knock on a rock the boy +ahead had not seen under water started the planks so that we knew that +was dangerous play; and, without more solicitation, the old man beached +the boat in a little cove where the reeds gave place for a trickling +stream. I told them they might land or not, as they pleased. I would go +ashore and get assistance or information. The old man clearly thought I +was going to ask my assistance from the father of lies himself. But he +was resigned to my will,--said he would wait for my return. I stripped, +and waded ashore with my clothes upon my head, dressed as quickly as I +could, and pushed up from the beach to the low upland. + +Clearly enough I was in a civilized country. Not that there was a +gallows, as the old joke says; but there were tracks in the shingle of +the beach showing where wheels had been, and these led me to a +cart-track between high growths of that Mediterranean reed which grows +all along in those low flats. There is one of the reeds on the hooks +above my gun in the hall as you came in. I followed up the track, but +without seeing barn, house, horse, or man, for a quarter of a mile, +perhaps, when behold,-- + +Not the footprint of a man! as to Robinson Crusoe;-- + +Not a gallows and man hanging! as in the sailor story above named;-- + +But a railroad track! Evidently a horse-railroad. + +"A horse-railroad in Italy!" said I, aloud. "A horse-railroad in +Sybaris! It must have changed since the days of the coppersmiths!" And I +flung myself on a heap of reeds which lay there, and waited. + +In two minutes I heard the fast step of horses, as I supposed; in a +minute more four mules rounded the corner, and a "horse-car" came +dashing along the road. I stepped forward and waved my hand, but the +driver bowed respectfully, pointed back, and then to a board on top of +his car, and I read, as he dashed by me, the word + +[Greek: Pleron], + +displayed full above him; as one may read _Complet_ on a Paris omnibus. + +Now [Greek: Pleron] is the Greek for full. "In Sybaris they do not let +the horse-railroads grind the faces of the passengers," said I. "Not so +wholly changed since the coppersmiths." And, within the minute, more +quadrupedantal noises, more mules, and another car, which stopped at my +signal. I entered, and found a dozen or more passengers, sitting back to +back on a seat which ran up the middle of the car, as you might ride in +an Irish jaunting-car. In this way it was impossible for the conductor +to smuggle in a standing passenger, impossible for a passenger to catch +cold from a cracked window, and possible for a passenger to see the +scenery from the window. "Can it be possible," said I, "that the +traditions of Sybaris really linger here?" + +I sat quite in the front of the car, so that I could see the fate of my +first friend [Greek: Pleron],--the full car. In a very few minutes it +switched off from our track, leaving us still to pick up our complement, +and then I saw that it dropped its mules, and was attached, on a side +track, to an endless chain, which took it along at a much greater +rapidity, so that it was soon out of sight. I addressed my next neighbor +on the subject, in Greek which would have made my fortune in those old +days of the pea-green settees. But he did not seem to make much of that, +but in sufficiently good Italian told me, that, as soon as we were full, +we should be attached in the same way to the chain, which was driven by +stationary engines five or six stadia apart, and so indeed it proved. We +picked up one or two market-women, a young artist or two, and a little +boy. When the child got in, there was a nod and smile on people's faces; +my next neighbor said to me, [Greek: Pleron], as if with an air of +relief; and sure enough, in a minute more, we were flying along at a +2.20 pace, with neither mule nor engine in sight, stopping about once a +mile to drop passengers, if there was need, and evidently approaching +Sybaris. + +All along now were houses, each with its pretty garden of perhaps an +acre, no fences, because no cattle at large. I wonder if the Vineland +people know they caught that idea from Sybaris! All the houses were of +one story,--stretching out as you remember Pliny's villa did, if Ware +and Van Brunt ever showed you the plans,--or as Erastus Bigelow builds +factories at Clinton. I learned afterwards that stair-builders and +slaveholders are forbidden to live in Sybaris by the same article in the +fundamental law. This accounts, with other things, for the vigorous +health of their women. I supposed that this was a mere suburban habit, +and, though the houses came nearer and nearer, yet, as no two houses +touched in a block, I did not know we had come into the city till all +the passengers left the car, and the conductor courteously told me we +were at our journey's end. + +When this happens to you in Boston, and you leave your car, you find +yourself huddled on a steep sloping sidewalk, under the rain or snow, +with a hundred or more other passengers, all eager, all wondering, all +unprovided for. But I found in Sybaris a large glass-roofed station, +from which the other lines of neighborhood cars radiated, in which women +and even little children were passing from route to to route, under the +guidance of civil and intelligent persons, who, strange enough, made it +their business to conduct these people to and fro, and did not consider +it their duty to insult the traveller. For a moment my mind reverted to +the contrast at home; but not long. As I stood admiring and amused at +once, a bright, brisk little fellow stepped up to me, and asked what my +purpose was, and which way I would go. He spoke in Greek first, but, +seeing I did not catch his meaning, relapsed into very passable Italian, +quite as good as mine. + +I told him that I was shipwrecked, and had come into town for +assistance. He expressed sympathy, but wasted not a moment, led me to +his chief at an office on one side, who gave me a card with the address +of an officer whose duty it was to see to strangers, and said that he +would in turn introduce me to the chief of the boat-builders; and then +said, as if in apology for his promptness, + + "[Greek: Chre xeiuon pareonta philein, ethelonta de pempein.]" + "Welcome the coming, speed the parting guest." + +He called to me a conductor of the red line, said [Greek: Xenos], which +we translate guest, but which I found in this case means "dead-head," or +"free," bowed, and I saw him no more. + +"Strange country have I come to, indeed," said I, as I thought of the +passports of Civita Vecchia, of the indifference of Scollay's Buildings, +and of the surliness of Springfield. "And this is Sybaris!" + + * * * * * + +We sent down a tug to the cove which I indicated on their topographical +map, and to the terror of the old fisherman and his sons, to whom I had +sent a note, which they could not read, our boat was towed up to the +city quay, and was put under repairs. That last thump on the hidden rock +was her worst injury, and it was a week before I could get away. It was +in this time that I got the information I am now to give, partly from my +own observations, partly from what George the Proxenus or his brother +Philip told me,--more from what I got from a very pleasing person, the +wife of another brother, at whose house I used to visit freely, and +whose boys, fine fellows, were very fond of talking about America with +me. They spoke English very funnily, and like little school-books. The +ship-carpenter, a man named Alexander, was a very intelligent person; +and, indeed, the whole social arrangement of the place was so simple, +that it seemed to me that I got on very fast, and knew a great deal of +them in a very short time. + +I told George one day, that I was surprised that he had so much time to +give to me. He laughed, and said he could well believe that, as I had +said that I was brought up in Boston. "When I was there," said he, "I +could see that your people were all hospitable enough, but that the +people who were good for anything were made to do all the work of the +_vauriens_, and really had no time for friendship or hospitality. I +remember an historian of yours, who crossed with me, said that there +should be a motto stretched across Boston Bay, from one fort to another, +with the words, 'No admittance, except on business.'" + +I did not more than half like this chaffing of Boston, and asked how +they managed things in Sybaris. + +"Why, you see," said he, "we hold pretty stiffly to the old Charondian +laws, of which perhaps you know something; here's a copy of the code, if +you would like to look over it," and he took one out of his pocket. "We +are still very chary about amendments to statutes, so that very little +time is spent in legislation; we have no bills at shops, and but little +debt, and that is all on honor, so that there is not much +account-keeping or litigation; you know what happens to gossips,--gossip +takes a good deal of time elsewhere,--and somehow everybody does his +share of work, so that all of us do have a good deal of what you call +'leisure.' Whether," he added pensively, "in a world God put us into +that we might love each other, and learn to love,--whether the time we +spend in society, or the time we spend caged behind our office desks, is +the time which should be called devoted to the 'business of life,' that +remains to be seen." + +"How came you to Boston," said I, "and when?" + +"O, we all have to travel," said George, "if we mean to go into the +administration. And I liked administration. I observe that you appoint a +foreign ambassador because he can make a good stump speech in Kentucky. +But since Charondas's time, training has been at the bottom of our +system. And no man could offer himself here to serve on the school +committee, unless he knew how other nations managed their schools." + +"Not if he had himself made school-books?" said I. + +"No!" laughed George, "for he might introduce them. With us no professor +may teach from a text-book he has made himself, unless the highest +council of education order it; and on the same principle we should never +choose a bookseller on the school committee. And so, to go back," he +said, "when my father found that administration was my passion, he sent +me the grand tour. I learned a great deal in America, and am very fond +of the Americans. But I never saw one here before." + +I did not ask what he learned in America, for I was more anxious to +learn myself how they administered government in Sybaris. + + * * * * * + +The inns at Sybaris are not very large, not extending much beyond the +compass of a large private house. Mine was kept by a woman. As we sat +there, smoking on the piazza, the first evening I was there, I asked +George about this horse-railroad management, and the methods they took +to secure such personal comfort. + +He said that my question cut pretty low down, for that the answer really +involved the study of their whole system. "I have thought of it a good +deal," said he, "when I have been in St. Petersburg, and in England and +America; and as far as I can find out, our peculiarity in everything is, +that we respect--I have sometimes thought we almost worshipped--the +rights, even the notions or whims, of the individual citizen. With us +the first object of the state, as an organization, is to care for the +individual citizen, be he man, woman, or child. We consider the state to +be made for the better and higher training of men, much as your divines +say that the Church is. Instead of our lumping our citizens, therefore, +and treating Jenny Lind and Tom Heenan to the same dose of public +schooling,--instead of saying that what is sauce for the goose is sauce +for the gander,--we try to see that each individual is protected in the +enjoyment, not of what the majority likes, but of what he chooses, so +long as his choice injures no other man." + +I thought, in one whiff, of Stuart Mill, and of the coppersmiths. + +"Our horse-railroad system grew out of this theory," continued he. "As +long ago as Herodotus, people lived here in houses one story high, with +these gardens between. But some generations ago, a young fellow named +Apollidorus, who had been to Edinburgh, pulled down his father's house +and built a block of what you call houses on the site of it. They were +five stories high, had basements, and so on, with windows fore and aft, +and, of course, none on the sides. The old fogies looked aghast. But he +found plenty of fools to hire them. But the tenants had not been in a +week, when the Kategoros, district attorney, had him up 'for taking +away from a citizen what he could not restore.' This, you must know, is +one of the severest charges in our criminal code. + +"Of course, it was easy enough to show that the tenants went willingly; +he showed dumb-waiters, and I know not what infernal contrivances of +convenience within. But he could not show that the tenants had north +windows and south windows, because they did not. The government, on +their side, showed that men were made to breathe fresh air, and that he +could not ventilate his houses as if they were open on all sides; they +showed that women were not made to climb up and down ladders, and to +live on stages at the tops of them; and he tried in vain to persuade the +jury that this climbing was good for little children. He had lured these +citizens into places dangerous for health, growth, strength, and +comfort. And so he was compelled to erect a statue typical of strength, +and a small hospital for infants, as his penalty. That spirited +Hercules, which stands in front of the market, was a part of his fine. + +"Of course, after a decision like this, concentration of inhabitants was +out of the question. Every pulpit in Sybaris blazed with sermons on the +text, 'Every man shall sit under his vine and under his fig-tree.' +Everybody saw that a house without its own garden was an abomination, +and easy communication with the suburbs was a necessity. + +"It was, indeed, easy enough to show, as the city engineer did, that the +power wasted in lifting people up, and, for that matter, down stairs, in +a five-story house, in one day, would carry all those people I do not +know how many miles on a level railroad track in less time. What you +call horse-railroads, therefore, became a necessity." + +I said they made a great row with us. + +"Yes," said he, "I saw they did. With us the government owns and repairs +the track, as you do the track of any common road. We never have any +difficulty. + +"You see," he added after a pause, "with us, if a conductor sprains the +ankle of a citizen, it is a matter the state looks after. With you, the +citizen must himself be the prosecutor, and virtually never is. Did you +notice a pretty winged Mercury outside the station-house you came to?" + +I had noticed it. + +"That was put up, I don't know how long ago, in the infancy of these +things. They took a car off one night, without public notice beforehand. +One old man was coming in on it, to his daughter's wedding. He missed +his connection out at Little Krastis, and lost half an hour. Down came +the Kategoros. The company had taken from a citizen what they could not +restore, namely, half an hour." + +George lighted another cigar, and laughed very heartily. "That's a great +case in our reports," he said. "The company ventured to go to trial on +it. They hoped they might overturn the old decisions, which were so old +that nobody knows when they were made,--as old as the dancing horses," +said he, laughing. "They said _time_ was not a thing,--it was a relation +of ideas; that it did not exist in heaven; that they could not be made +to suffer because they did not deliver back what no man ever saw, or +touched, or tasted. What was half an hour? But the jury was pitiless. A +lot of business men, you know,--they knew the value of time. What did +they care for the metaphysics? And the company was bidden to put up an +appropriate statue worth ten talents in front of their station-house, as +a reminder to all their people that a citizen's time was worth +something." + +This was George's first visit to me; and it was the first time, +therefore, that I observed a queer thing. Just at this point he rose +rather suddenly and bade me good evening. I begged him to stay, but had +to repeat my invitation twice. His hand was on the handle of the door +before he turned back. Then he sat down, and we went on talking; but +before long he did the same thing again, and then again. + +At last I was provoked, and said: "What is the custom of your country? +Do you have to take a walk every eleven minutes and a quarter?" + +George laughed again, and indeed blushed. "Do you know what a bore is?" +said he. + +"Alas! I do," said I. + +"Well," said he, "the universal custom here is, that an uninvited guest, +who calls on another man on his own business, rises at the end of eleven +minutes, and offers to go. And the courts have ruled, very firmly, that +there must be a _bona fide_ effort. We get into such a habit of it, +that, with you, I really did it unawares. The custom is as old as +Cleisthenes and his wedding. But some of the decisions are not more than +two or three centuries old, and they are very funny. + +"On the whole," he added, "I think it works well. Of course, between +friends, it is absurd, but it is a great protection against a class of +people who think their own concerns are the only things of value. You +see you have only to say, when a man comes in, that you thank him for +coming, that you wish he would stay, or to take his hat or his +stick,--you have only to make him an invited guest,--and then the rule +does not hold." + +"Ah!" said I; "then I invite you to spend every evening with me while I +am here." + +"Take care," said he; "the Government Almanac is printed and distributed +gratuitously from the fines on bores. Their funds are getting very low +up at the department, and they will be very sharp on your friends. So +you need not be profuse in your invitations." + + * * * * * + +This conversation was a clew to a good many things which I saw while I +was in the city. I never was in a place where there were so many +tasteful, pretty little conveniences for everybody. At the quadrants, +where the streets cross, there was always a pretty little sheltered seat +for four or five people,--shaded, stuffed, dry, and always the morning +and evening papers, and an advertisement of the times of boats and +trains, for any one who might be waiting for a car or for a friend. +Sometimes these were votive offerings, where public spirit had spoken in +gratitude. More often they had been ordered at the cost of some one who +had taken from a citizen what he could not repay. The private citizen +might often hesitate about prosecuting a bore, or a nuisance, or a +conceited company officer. But the Kategoroi made no bones about it. +They called the citizen as a witness, and gave the criminal a reminder +which posterity held in awe. Their point, as they always explained it to +me, is, that the citizen's health and strength are essential to the +state. The state cannot afford to have him maimed, any more than it can +afford to have him drunk or ignorant. The individual, of course, cannot +be following up his separate grievances with people who abridge his +rights. But the public accuser can and does. + +With us, public servants, who know they are public servants, are always +obliging and civil. I would not ask better treatment in my own home than +I am sure of in Capitol, State-house, or city hall. It is only when you +get to some miserable sub-bureau, where the servant of the servant of a +creature of the state can bully you, that you come to grief. For +instance the State of Massachusetts just now forbids corporations to +work children more than ten hours a day. The _corporations_ obey. But +the overseers in the rooms, whom the corporations employ, work children +eleven hours, or as many as they choose. They would not stand that in +Sybaris. + + * * * * * + +I was walking one day with one of the bright boys of whom I spoke, and I +asked him, as I had his father, if I was not keeping him away from his +regular occupation. Ought he not be at school? + +"No," said he; "this is my off-term." + +"Pray, what is that?" + +"Don't you know? We only go to school three months in winter and three +in summer. I thought you did so in America. I know Mr. Webster did. I +read it in his Life." + +I was on the point of saying that we knew now how to train more powerful +men than Mr. Webster, but the words stuck in my throat, and the boy +rattled on. + +"The teachers have to be there all the time, except when they go in +retreat. They take turns about retreat. But we are in two choroi; I am +choros-boy now, James is anti-choros. Choros have school in January, +February, March, July, August, September. Next year I shall be +anti-choros." + +"Which do you like best,--off-term or school?" said I. + +"O, both is as good as one. When either begins, we like it. We get +rather sick of either before the three months are over." + +"What do you do in your off-terms?" said I,--"go fishing?" + +"No, of course not," said he, "except Strep, and Hipp, and Chal, and +those boys, because their fathers are fishermen. No, we have to be in +our fathers' offices, we big boys; the little fellows, they let them +stay at home. If I was here without you now, that truant-officer we +passed just now would have had me at home before this time. Well, you +see they think we learn about business, and I guess we do. I know I do," +said he, "and sometimes I think I should like to be a Proxenus when I am +grown up, but I do not know." + +I asked George about this, the same evening. He said the boy was pretty +nearly right about it. They had come round to the determination that the +employment of children, merely because their wages were lower than +men's, was very dangerous economy. The chances were that the children +were over-worked, and that their constitution was fatally impaired. "We +do not want any Manchester-trained children here." Then they had found +that steady brain-work on girls, at the growing age, was pretty nearly +slow murder in the long run. They did not let girls go to school with +any persistency after they were twelve or fourteen. After they were +twenty, they might study what they chose. + +"But the main difference between our schools and yours," said he, "is +that your teacher is only expected to hear the lesson recited. Our +teacher is expected to teach it also. You have in America, therefore, +sixty scholars to one teacher. We do not pretend to have more than +twenty to one teacher. We do this the easier because we let no child go +to school more than half the time; nor, even with the strongest, more +than four hours a day. + +"Why," said he, "I was at a college in America once, where, with +splendid mathematicians, they had had but one man teach any mathematics +for thirty years. And he was travelling in Europe when I was there. The +others only heard recitations of those who could learn without being +taught." + +"I was once there," said I. + + * * * * * + +The boat's repairs still lingered, and on Sunday little Phil. came round +with a note from his mother, to ask if I would go to church with them. +If I had rather go to the cathedral or elsewhere, Phil. would show me +the way. I preferred to go with him and her together. It was a pretty +little church,--quite open and airy it would seem to us,--excellent +chance to see dancing vines, or flying birds, or falling rains, or other +"meteors outside," if the preacher proved dull or the hymns undevout. +But I found my attention was well held within. Not that the preaching +was anything to be repeated. The sermon was short, unpretending, but +alive and devout. It was a sonnet, all on one theme; that theme pressed, +and pressed, and pressed again, and, of a sudden, the preacher was done. +"You say you know God loves you," he said. "I hope you do, but I am +going to tell you once more that he loves you, and once more and once +more." What pleased me in it all was a certain unity of service, from +the beginning to the end. The congregation's singing seemed to suggest +the prayer; the prayer seemed to continue in the symphony of the organ; +and, while I was in revery, the organ ceased; but as it was ordered, the +sermon took up the theme of my revery, and so that one theme ran through +the whole. The service was not ten things, like the ten parts of a +concert, it was one act of communion or worship. Part of this was due, I +guess, to this, that we were in a small church, sitting or kneeling near +each other, close enough to get the feeling of communion,--not parted, +indeed, in any way. We had been talking together, as we stood in the +churchyard before the service began, and when we assembled in the church +the sense of sympathy continued. I told Kleone that I liked the home +feeling of the church, and she was pleased. She said she was afraid I +should have preferred the cathedral. There were four large cathedrals, +open, as the churches were, to all the town; and all the clergy, of +whatever order, took turns in conducting the service in them. There were +seven successive services in each of them that Sunday. But each +clergyman had his own special charge beside,--I should think of not more +than a hundred families. And these families, generally neighbors in the +town, indeed, seemed, naturally enough, to grow into very familiar +personal relations with each other. + + * * * * * + +I asked Philip one day how long his brother George would hold his office +of host, or Proxenus. Philip turned a little sharply on me, and asked if +I had any complaints to make, being, in fact, rather a quick-tempered +person. I soothed him by explaining that all that I asked about was the +tenure of office in their system, and he apologized. + +"He will be in as long as he chooses, probably. In theory, he remains in +until a majority of the voters, which is to say the adult men and women, +join in a petition for his removal. Then he will be removed at once. +The government will appoint a temporary substitute, and order an +election of his successor." + +"Do you mean there is no fixed election-day?" + +"None at all," said Philip. "We are always voting. When we stopped just +now I went in to vote for an alderman of our ward, in place of a man who +has resigned. I wish I had taken you in with me, though there was +nothing to see. Only three or four great books, each headed with the +name of a candidate. I wrote my name in Andrew Second's book. He is, on +the whole, the best man. The books will be open three months. No one, of +course, can vote more than once, and at the end of that time there will +be a count, and a proclamation will be made. Then about removal; any one +who is dissatisfied with a public officer puts his name up at the head +of a book in the election office. Of course there are dozens of books +all the time. But unless there is real incapacity, nobody cares. +Sometimes, when one man wants another's place, he gets up a great +breeze, the newspapers get hold of it, and everybody is canvassed who +can be got to the spot. But it is very hard to turn out a competent +officer. If in three months, however, at all the registries, a majority +of the voters express a wish for a man's removal, he has to go out. +Practically, I look in once a week at that office to see what is going +on. It is something as you vote at your clubs." + +"Did you say women as well as men?" said I. + +"O, yes," said Philip, "unless a woman or a man has formally withdrawn +from the roll. You see, the roll is the list, not only of voters, but of +soldiers. For a man to withdraw, is to say he is a coward and dares not +take his chance in war. Sometimes a woman does not like military +service, and if she takes her name off I do not think the public feeling +about it is quite the same as with a man. She may have things to do at +home." + +"But do you mean that most of the women serve in the army?" said I. + +"Of course they do," said he. "They wanted to vote, so we put them on +the roll. You do not see them much. Most of the women's regiments are +heavy artillery, in the forts, which can be worked just as well by +persons of less as of more muscle if you have enough of them. Each +regiment in our service is on duty a month, and in reserve six. You know +we have no distant posts." + +"We have a great many near-sighted men in America," said I, "who cannot +serve in the army." + +"We make our near-sighted men work heavy guns, serve in light artillery, +or, in very bad cases, we detail them to the police work of the camps," +said he. "The deaf and dumb men we detail to serve the military +telegraphs. They keep secrets well. The blind men serve in the bands. +And the men without legs ride in barouches in state processions. +Everybody serves somewhere." + +"That is the reason," said I, with a sigh, "why everybody has so much +time in Sybaris!" + + * * * * * + +But the reader has more than enough of this. Else I would print my +journal of "A Week in Sybaris." By Thursday the boat was mended. I +hunted up the old fisherman and his boys. He was willing to go where my +Excellency bade, but he said his boys wanted to stay. They would like to +live here. + +"Among the devils?" said I. + +The old man confessed that the place for poor men was the best place he +ever saw; the markets were cheap, the work was light, the inns were +neat, the people were civil, the music was good, the churches were free, +and the priests did not lie. He believed the reason that nobody ever +came back from Sybaris was, that nobody wanted to. + +The Proxenus nodded, well pleased. + +"So Battista and his brother would like to stay a few months; and he +found he might bring Caterina too, when my Excellency had returned from +Gallipoli; or did my Excellency think that, when Garibaldi had driven +out the Bourbons, all the world would be like Sybaris?" + +My Excellency hoped so; but did not dare promise. + + * * * * * + +"You see now," said George, "why you hear so little of Sybaris. Enough +people come to us. But you are the only man I ever saw leave Sybaris who +did not mean to return." + +"And I," said I,--"do you think I am never coming here again?" + +"You found it a hard harbor to make," said the Proxenus. "We have +published no sailing directions since St. Paul touched here, and those +which he wrote--he sent them to the Corinthians yonder--neither they nor +any one else have seemed to understand." + +"Good by." + +"God bless you! Good by." And I sailed for Gallipoli. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote B: I am writing in Westerly's snuggery, and in Providence they +believe in Webster. I dare say it is worse in Worcester. A good many +things are.] + +[Footnote C: The reader who cares to follow the detail is referred to +Diodorus Siculus, XII.; Strabo, VI.; AElian, V. H. 9, c. 24; Athenaeus, +XII. 518; Plutarch in Pelopidas; Herodotus, V. and VI. Compare Laurent's +Geographical Notes, and Wheeler and Gaisford; Pliny, III. 15, VII. 22, +XVI. 33, VIII. 64, XXXI. 9; Aristotle, Polit. IV. 12, V. 3; Heyne's +Opuscula, II. 74; Bentley's Phalaris, 367; Solinus, 2, Sec. 10, "luxuries +grossly exaggerated"; Scymnus, 337-360; Aristophanes, Vesp. 1427, 1436; +Lycophron, Alex. 1079; Polybius, Gen. Hist. II. 3, on the confederation +of Sybaris, Krotan, and Kaulonia,--"a perplexing statement," says Grote, +"showing that he must have conceived the history of Sybaris in a very +different form from that in which it is commonly represented"; third +volume of De Non, who disagrees with Magnan as to the site of Sybaris, +and says the sea-shore is uninhabitable! Tuccagni Orlandini, Vol. XI., +Supplement, p. 294; besides the dictionaries and books of travels, +including Murray. I have availed myself, without other reference, of +most of these authorities.] + + + + +THE PIANO IN THE UNITED STATES. + + +Twenty-five thousand pianos were made in the United States last year! + +This is the estimate of the persons who know most of this branch of +manufacture, but it is only an approximation to the truth; for, besides +the sixty makers in New York, the thirty in Boston, the twenty in +Philadelphia, the fifteen in Baltimore, the ten in Albany, and the less +number in Cincinnati, Buffalo, Chicago, St. Louis, and San Francisco, +there are small makers in many country towns, and even in villages, who +buy the parts of a piano in the nearest city, put them together, and +sell the instrument in the neighborhood. The returns of the houses which +supply the ivory keys of the piano to all the makers in the country are +confirmatory of this estimate; which, we may add, is that of Messrs. +Steinway of New York, who have made it a point to collect both the +literature and the statistics of the instrument, of which they are among +the largest manufacturers in the world. + +The makers' prices of pianos now range from two hundred and ninety +dollars to one thousand; and the prices to the public, from four hundred +and fifty dollars to fifteen hundred. We may conclude, therefore, that +the people of the United States during the year 1866 expended fifteen +millions of dollars in the purchase of new pianos. It is not true that +we export many pianos to foreign countries, as the public are led to +suppose from the advertisements of imaginative manufacturers. American +citizens--all but the few consummately able kings of business--allow a +free play to their imagination in advertising the products of their +skill. Canada buys a small number of our pianos; Cuba, a few; Mexico, a +few; South America, a few; and now and then one is sent to Europe, or +taken thither by a Thalberg or a Gottschalk; but an inflated currency +and a war tariff make it impossible for Americans to compete with +European makers in anything but excellence. In price, they cannot +compete. Every disinterested and competent judge with whom we have +conversed on this subject gives it as his deliberate opinion that the +best American piano is the best of all pianos, and the one longest +capable of resisting the effects of a trying climate; yet we cannot sell +them, at present, in any considerable numbers, in any market but our +own. Protectionists are requested to note this fact, which is not an +isolated fact. America possesses such an astonishing genius for +inventing and combining labor-saving machinery, that we could now supply +the world with many of its choicest products, in the teeth of native +competition, but for the tariff, the taxes, and the inflation, which +double the cost of producing. The time may come, however, when we shall +sell pianos at Paris, and watches in London, as we already do +sewing-machines everywhere. + +Twenty-five thousand pianos a year, at a cost of fifteen millions of +dollars! Presented in this manner, the figures produce an effect upon +the mind, and we wonder that an imperfectly reconstructed country could +absorb in a single year, and that year an unprosperous one, so large a +number of costly musical instruments. But, upon performing a sum in long +division, we discover that these startling figures merely mean, that +every working-day in this country one hundred and twelve persons buy a +new piano. When we consider, that every hotel, steamboat, and public +school above a certain very moderate grade, must have from one to four +pianos, and that young ladies' seminaries jingle with them from basement +to garret, (one school in New York has thirty Chickerings,) and that +almost every couple that sets up housekeeping on a respectable scale +considers a piano only less indispensable than a kitchen range, we are +rather inclined to wonder at the smallness than at the largeness of the +number. + +The trade in new pianos, however, is nothing to the countless +transactions in old. Here figures are impossible; but probably ten +second-hand pianos are sold to one new one. The business of letting +pianos is also one of great extent. It is computed by the well-informed, +that the number of these instruments now "out," in the city of New York, +is three thousand. There is one firm in Boston that usually has a +thousand let. As the rent of a piano ranges from six dollars to twelve +dollars a month,--cartage both ways paid by the hirer,--it may be +inferred that this business, when conducted on a large scale, and with +the requisite vigilance, is not unprofitable. In fact, the income of a +piano-letting business has approached eighty thousand dollars per annum, +of which one third was profit. It has, however, its risks and drawbacks. +From June to September, the owner of the instruments must find storage +for the greater part of his stock, and must do without most of his +monthly returns. Many of those who hire pianos, too, are persons +"hanging on the verge" of society, who have little respect for the +property of others, and vanish to parts unknown, leaving a damaged piano +behind them. + +England alone surpasses the United States in the number of pianos +annually manufactured. In 1852, the one hundred and eighty English +makers produced twenty-three thousand pianos,--fifteen hundred grands, +fifteen hundred squares, and twenty thousand uprights. As England has +enjoyed fifteen years of prosperity since, it is probable that the +annual number now exceeds that of the United States. The English people, +however, pay much less money for the thirty thousand pianos which they +probably buy every year, than we do for our twenty-five thousand. In +London, the retail price of the best Broadwood grand, in plain mahogany +case, is one hundred and thirty-five guineas; which is a little more +than half the price of the corresponding American instrument. The best +London square piano, in plain case, is sixty guineas,--almost exactly +half the American price. Two thirds of all the pianos made in England +are low-priced uprights,--averaging thirty-five guineas,--which would +not stand in our climate for a year. England, therefore, supplies +herself and the British empire with pianos at an annual expenditure of +about eight millions of our present dollars. American makers, we may +add, have recently taken a hint from their English brethren with regard +to the upright instrument. Space is getting to be the dearest of all +luxuries in our cities, and it has become highly desirable to have +pianos that occupy less of it than the square instrument which we +usually see. Successful attempts have been recently made to apply the +new methods of construction to the upright piano, with a view to make it +as durable as those of the usual forms. Such a brisk demand has sprung +up for the improved uprights, that the leading makers are producing them +in considerable numbers, and the Messrs. Steinway are erecting a new +building for the sole purpose of manufacturing them. The American +uprights, however, cannot be cheap. Such is the nature of the American +climate, that a piano, to be tolerable, must be excellent; and while +parts of the upright cost more than the corresponding parts of the +square, no part of it costs less. Six hundred dollars is the price of +the upright in plain rosewood case,--fifty dollars more than a plain +rosewood square. + +Paris pianos are renowned, the world over, and consequently three tenths +of all the pianos made in Paris are exported to foreign countries. +France, too, owing to the cheapness of labor, can make a better cheap +piano than any other country. In 1852, there were ten thousand pianos +made in Paris, at an average cost of one thousand francs each; and, we +are informed, a very good new upright piano can now be bought in France +for one hundred dollars. But in France the average wages of +piano-makers are five francs per day; in London, ten shillings; in New +York, four dollars and thirty-three cents. The cream of the business, in +Paris, is divided among three makers,--Erard, Hertz, and Pleyel,--each +of whom has a concert-hall of his own, to give _eclat_ to his +establishment. We presume Messrs. Steinway added "Steinway Hall" to the +attractions of New York from the example of their Paris friends, and +soon the metropolis will boast a "Chickering Hall" as well. This is an +exceedingly expensive form of advertisement. Steinway Hall cost two +hundred thousand dollars, and has not yet paid the cost of warming, +cleaning, and lighting it. This, however, is partly owing to the +good-nature of the proprietors, who find it hard to exact the rent from +a poor artist after a losing concert, and who have a constitutional +difficulty about saying _No_, when the use of the hall is asked for a +charitable object. + +In Germany there are no manufactories of pianos on the scale of England, +France, and the United States. A business of five pianos a week excites +astonishment in a German state, and it is not uncommon there for one man +to construct every part of a piano,--a work of three or four months. Mr. +Steinway the elder has frequently done this in his native place, and +could now do it. A great number of excellent instruments are made in +Germany in the slow, patient, thorough manner of the Germans; but in the +fashionable houses of Berlin and Vienna no German name is so much valued +as those of the celebrated makers of Paris. In the London exhibition of +1851, Russian pianos competed for the medals, some of which attracted +much attention from the excellence of their construction. Messrs. +Chickering assert, that the Russians were the first to employ +successfully the device of "overstringing," as it is called, by which +the bass strings are stretched over the others. + +The piano, then, one hundred and fifty-seven years after its invention, +in spite of its great cost, has become the leading musical instrument +of Christendom. England produces thirty thousand every year; the United +States, twenty-five thousand; France, fifteen thousand; Germany, perhaps +ten thousand; and all other countries, ten thousand; making a total of +ninety thousand, or four hundred and twenty-two for every working-day. +It is computed, that an average piano is the result of one hundred and +twenty days' work; and, consequently, there must be at least fifty +thousand men employed in the business. And it is only within a few years +that the making of these noble instruments has been done on anything +like the present scale. Messrs. Broadwood, of London, who have made in +all one hundred and twenty-nine thousand pianos, only begin to count at +the year 1780; and in the United States there were scarcely fifty pianos +a year made fifty years ago. + +We need scarcely say that the production of music for the piano has kept +pace with the advance of the instrument. Dr. Burney mentions, in his +History of Music (Vol. IV. p. 664), that when he came to London in 1744, +"Handel's Harpsichord Lessons and Organ Concertos, and the two First +Books of Scarletti's Lessons, were all the good music for keyed +instruments at that time in the nation." We have at this moment before +us the catalogue of music sold by one house in Boston, Oliver Ditson & +Co. It is a closely printed volume of three hundred and sixty pages, and +contains the titles of about thirty-three thousand pieces of music, +designed to be performed, wholly or partly, on the piano. By far the +greater number are piano music pure and simple. It is not a very rare +occurrence for a new piece to have a sale of one hundred thousand copies +in the United States. A composer who can produce the kind of music that +pleases the greatest number, may derive a revenue from his art ten times +greater than Mozart or Beethoven enjoyed in their most prosperous time. +There are trifling waltzes and songs upon the list of Messrs. Ditson, +which have yielded more profit than Mozart received for "Don Giovanni" +and "The Magic Flute" together. We learn from the catalogue just +mentioned, that the composers of music have an advantage over the +authors of books, in being always able to secure a publisher for their +productions. Messrs. Ditson announce that they are ready and willing to +publish any piece of music by any composer on the following easy +conditions: "Three dollars per page for engraving; two dollars and a +half per hundred sheets of paper; and one dollar and a quarter per +hundred pages for printing." At the same time they frankly notify +ambitious teachers, that "not one piece in ten pays the cost of getting +up, and not one in fifty proves a success." + +The piano, though its recent development has been so rapid, is the +growth of ages, and we can, for three thousand years or more, dimly and +imperfectly trace its growth. The instrument, indeed, has found an +historian,--Dr. Rimbault of London,--who has gathered the scattered +notices of its progress into a handsome quarto, now accessible in some +of our public libraries. It is far from our desire to make a display of +cheap erudition; yet perhaps ladies who love their piano may care to +spend a minute or two in learning how it came to be the splendid triumph +of human ingenuity, the precious addition to the happiness of existence, +which they now find it to be. "I have had my share of trouble," we heard +a lady say the other day, "but my piano has kept me happy." All ladies +who have had the virtue to subdue this noble instrument to their will, +can say something similar of the solace and joy they daily derive from +it. The Greek legend that the twang of Diana's bow suggested to Apollo +the invention of the lyre, was not a mere fancy; for the first stringed +instrument of which we have any trace in ancient sculpture differed from +an ordinary bow only in having more than one string. A two-stringed bow +was, perhaps, the first step towards the grand piano of to-day. +Additional strings involved the strengthening of the bow that held them; +and, accordingly, we find the Egyptian harps, discovered in the +catacombs by Wilkinson, very thick and massive in the lower part of the +frame, which terminated sometimes in a large and solid female head. From +the two-stringed bow to these huge twelve-stringed Egyptian harps, six +feet high and beautifully finished with veneer, inlaid with ivory and +mother-of-pearl, no one can say how many centuries elapsed. The catgut +strings of the harps of three thousand years ago are still capable of +giving a musical sound. The best workmen of the present time, we are +assured, could not finish a harp more exquisitely than these are +finished; yet they have no mechanism for tightening or loosening the +strings, and no strings except such as were furnished by the harmless, +necessary cat. The Egyptian harp, with all its splendor of decoration, +was a rude and barbaric instrument. + +It has not been shown that Greece or Rome added one essential +improvement to the stringed instruments which they derived from older +nations. The Chickerings, Steinways, Erards, and Broadwoods of our day +cannot lay a finger upon any part of a piano, and say that they owe it +to the Greeks or to the Romans. + +The Cithara of the Middle Ages was a poor thing enough, in the form of a +large P, with ten strings in the oval part; but it had _movable pegs_, +and could be easily tuned. It was, therefore, a step toward the piano of +the French Exposition of 1867. + +But the Psaltery was a great stride forward. This instrument was an +arrangement of _strings on a box_. Here we have the principle of the +sounding-board,--a thing of vital moment to the piano, and one upon +which the utmost care is bestowed by all the great makers. Whoever first +thought of stretching strings on a box may also be said to have half +invented the guitar and the violin. No single subsequent thought has +been so fruitful of consequences as this in the improvement of stringed +instruments. The reader, of course, will not confound the psaltery of +the Middle Ages with the psaltery of the Hebrews, respecting which +nothing is known. The translators of the Old Testament assigned the +names with which they were familiar to the musical instruments of the +Jews. + +About the year 1200 we arrive at the Dulcimer, which was an immense +psaltery, with improvements. Upon a harp-shaped box, eighteen to +thirty-six feet long, fifty strings were stretched, which the player +struck with a stick or a long-handled hammer. This instrument was a +signal advance toward the grand piano. It _was_ a piano, without its +machinery. + +The next thing, obviously, must have been to contrive a method of +striking the strings with certainty and evenness; and, accordingly, we +find indications of a keyed instrument after the year 1300, called the +Clavicytherium, or keyed cithara. The invention of keys permitted the +strings to be covered over, and therefore the strings of the +clavicytherium were enclosed _in_ a box, instead of being stretched _on_ +a box. The first keys were merely long levers with a nub at the end of +them, mounted on a pivot, which the player canted up at the strings on +the see-saw principle. It has required four hundred years to bring the +mechanism of the piano key to its present admirable perfection. The +clavicytherium was usually a very small instrument,--an oblong box, +three or four feet in length, that could be lifted by a girl of +fourteen. The clavichord and manichord, which we read of in Mozart's +letters, were only improved and better-made clavicytheria. How affecting +the thought, that the divine Mozart had nothing better on which to try +the ravishing airs of "The Magic Flute" than a wretched box of brass +wires, twanged with pieces of quill! So it is always, and in all +branches of art. Shakespeare's plays, Titian's pictures, the great +cathedrals, Newton's discoveries, Mozart's and Handel's music, were +executed while the implements of art and science were still very rude. + +Queen Elizabeth's instrument, the Virginals, was a box of strings, with +improved keys, and mounted on four legs. In other words, it was a small +and very bad piano. The excellent Pepys, in his account of the great +fire of London of 1666, says: "River full of lighters and boats taking +in goods, and good goods swimming in the water; and only I observed that +hardly one lighter or boat in three that had the goods of a house in it, +but there were a pair of virginalls in it." Why "a pair"? For the same +reason that induces many persons to say "a pair of stairs," and "a pair +of compasses," that is, no reason at all. + +It is plain that the virginals, or virgin's clavichord, was very far +from holding the rank among musical instruments which the piano now +possesses. If any of our readers should ever come upon a thin folio +entitled "Musick's Monument," (London, 1676,) we advise him to clutch +it, retire from the haunts of men, and abandon himself to the delight of +reading the Izaak Walton of music. It is a most quaint and curious +treatise upon "the Noble Lute, the best of instruments," with a chapter +upon "the generous Viol," by Thomas Mace, "one of the clerks of Trinity +College in the University of Cambridge." Master Mace deigns not to +mention keyed instruments, probably regarding keys as old sailors regard +the lubber's hole,--fit only for greenhorns. The "Noble Lute," of which +Thomas Mace discourses, was a large, heavy, pot-bellied guitar with many +strings. We learn from this enthusiastic author, that the noble lute had +been calumniated by some ignorant persons; and it is in refuting their +calumnious imputations that he pours out a torrent of knowledge upon his +beloved instrument, and upon the state of music in England in 1675. In +reply to the charge, that the noble lute was a very hard instrument to +play upon, he gives posterity a piece of history. That the lute _was_ +hard once, he confesses, but asserts that "it is now easie, and very +familiar." + +"The First and Chief Reason that it was Hard in former Times, was, +Because they had to their Lutes but Few Strings; viz. to some 10, some +12, and some 14 Strings, which in the beginning of my Time were almost +altogether in use; (and is this present Year 1675. Fifty four years +since I first began to undertake That Instrument). But soon after, they +began to adde more Strings unto Their Lutes, so that we had Lutes of 16, +18, and 20 Strings; which they finding to be so Great a Convenience, +stayed not long till they added more, to the Number of 24, where we now +rest satisfied; only upon my Theorboes I put 26 Strings, for some Good +Reasons I shall be able to give in due Time and Place." + +Another aspersion upon the noble lute was, that it was "a Woman's +Instrument." Master Mace gallantly observes, that if this were true, he +cannot understand why it should suffer any disparagement on that +account, "but rather that it should have the more Reputation and +Honour." + +There are passages in this ancient book which take us back so agreeably +to the concert-rooms and parlors of two hundred years ago, and give us +such an insight into the musical resources of our forefathers, that we +shall venture to copy two or three of them. The following brief +discourse upon Pegs is very amusing:-- + +"And you must know, that from the Badness of the Pegs, arise several +Inconveniences; The first I have named, viz. the Loss of Labour. The 2d. +is, the Loss of Time; for I have known some so extreme long in Tuning +their Lutes and Viols, by reason only of Bad Pegs, that They have +wearied out their Auditors before they began to Play. A 3d. +Inconvenience is, that oftentimes, if a High-stretch'd small String +happen to slip down, 'tis in great danger to break at the next winding +up, especially in wet moist weather, and that It have been long slack. +The 4th. is, that when a String hath been slipt back, it will not stand +in Tune, under many Amendments; for it is continually in stretching +itself, till it come to Its highest stretch. A 5th. is, that in the +midst of a Consort, All the Company must leave off, because of some +Eminent String slipping. A 6th. is, that sometimes ye shall have such a +Rap upon the Knuckles, by a sharp-edg'd Peg, and a stiff strong String, +that the very Skin will be taken off. And 7thly. It is oftentimes an +occasion of the Thrusting off the Treble-Peg-Nut, and sometime of the +Upper Long Head; And I have seen the Neck of an Old Viol, thrust off +into two pieces, by reason of the Badness of the Pegs, meerly with the +Anger and hasty Choller of Him that has been Tuning. Now I say that +These are very Great Inconveniences, and do adde much to the Trouble and +Hardness of the Instrument. I shall therefore inform you how ye may Help +All These with Ease; viz. Thus. When you perceive any Peg to be troubled +with the slippery Disease, assure your self he will never grow better of +Himself, without some of Your Care; Therefore take Him out, and examine +the Cause." + +He gives advice with regard to the preservation of the Lute in the moist +English climate:-- + +"And that you may know how to shelter your Lute, in the worst of Ill +weathers (which is moist) you shall do well, ever when you Lay it by in +the day-time, to put It into a Bed, that is constantly used, between the +Rug and Blanket; but never between the Sheets, because they may be moist +with Sweat, &c. + +"This is the most absolute and best place to keep It in always, by which +doing, you will find many Great Conveniencies, which I shall here set +down.... + +"Therefore, a Bed will secure from all These Inconveniences, and keep +your Glew so Hard as Glass, and All safe and sure; only to be excepted, +That no Person be so inconsiderate, as to Tumble down upon the Bed, +whilst the Lute is There; For I have known several Good Lutes spoil'd +with such a Trick." + +We may infer from Master Mace his work, that the trivial virginals were +gaining in popular estimation upon the nobler instrument which is the +theme of his eulogy. He has no patience with those who object to his +beloved lute that it is out of fashion. He remarks upon this subject in +a truly delicious strain:-- + +"I cannot understand, how Arts and Sciences should be subject unto any +such Phantastical, Giddy, or Inconsiderate Toyish Conceits, as ever to +be said to be in Fashion, or out of Fashion. I remember there was a +Fashion, not many years since, for Women in their Apparel to be so Pent +up by the Straitness, and Stiffness of their Gown-Shoulder-Sleeves, that +They could not so much as Scratch Their Heads, for the Necessary Remove +of a Biting Louse; nor Elevate their Arms scarcely to feed themselves +Handsomly; nor Carve a Dish of Meat at a Table, but their whole Body +must needs Bend towards the Dish. This must needs be concluded by +Reason, a most Vnreasonable, and Inconvenient Fashion; and They as +Vnreasonably Inconsiderate, who would be so Abus'd, and Bound up. I +Confess It was a very Good Fashion, for some such Viragoes, who were +us'd to Scratch their Husbands Faces or Eyes, and to pull them down by +the Coxcombes. And I am subject to think, It was a meer Rogery in the +Combination, or Club-council of the Taylors, to Abuse the Women in That +Fashion, in Revenge of some of the Curst Dames their Wives." + +Some lute-makers, this author informs us, were so famous in Europe, that +he had seen lutes of their making, "pittifull, old, batter'd, crack'd +things," that were valued at a hundred pounds sterling each; and he had +often seen lutes of three or four pounds' value "far more illustrious +and taking to a Common eye." In refuting the "aspersion that one had as +good keep a horse (for cost) as a Lute," he declares, that he never in +his life "took more than five shillings the quarter to maintain a Lute +with strings, only for the first stringing I ever took ten shillings." +He says, however: "I do confess Those who will be Prodigal and +Extraordinary Curious, may spend as much as may maintain two or three +Horses, and Men to ride upon them too, if they please. But 20_s._ per +ann. is an Ordinary Charge; and much more they need not spend, to +practise very hard." + +Keyed instruments, despite the remonstrances of the lutists, continued +to advance toward their present supremacy. As often as an important +improvement was introduced, the instrument changed its name, just as in +our day the melodeon was improved into the harmonium, then into the +organ-harmonium, and finally into the cabinet organ. The virginals of +1600 became the spinet of 1700,--so called because the pieces of quill +employed in twanging the strings resembled thorns, and _spina_, in +Latin, means thorn. Any lady who will take the trouble to mount to the +fourth story of the Messrs. Chickering's piano store in the city of New +York, may see such a spinet as Mrs. Washington, Mrs. Adams, and Mrs. +Hamilton played upon when they were little girls. It is a small, +harp-shaped instrument on legs, exceedingly coarse and clumsy in its +construction,--the case rough and unpolished, the legs like those of a +kitchen table, with wooden castors such as were formerly used in the +construction of cheap bedsteads of the "trundle" variety. The keys, +however, are much like those now in use, though they are fewer in +number, and the ivory is yellow with age. If the reader would know the +tone of this ancient instrument, he has but to stretch a brass wire +across a box between two nails, and twang them with a short pointed +piece of quill. And if the reader would know how much better the year +1867 is than the year 1700, he may first hear this spinet played upon in +Messrs. Chickering's dusty garret, and then descend to one of the floors +below, and listen to the round, full, brilliant singing of a Chickering +grand, of the present illustrious year. By as much as that grand piano +is better than that poor little spinet, by so much is the present time +better than the days when Louis XIV. was king. If any intelligent +person doubts it, it is either because he does not know that age, or +because he does not know this age. + +The spinet expanded into the harpsichord, the leading instrument from +1700 to 1800. A harpsichord was nothing but a very large and powerful +spinet. Some of them had two strings for each note; some had three; some +had three kinds of strings,--catgut, brass, and steel; and some were +painted and decorated in the most gorgeous style. Frederick the Great +had one made for him in London, with silver hinges, silver pedals, +inlaid case, and tortoise-shell front, at a cost of two hundred guineas. +Every part of the construction of the spinet was improved, and many new +minor devices were added; but the harpsichord, in its best estate, was +nothing but a spinet, because its strings were always twanged by a piece +of quill. How astonished would an audience be to hear a harpsichord of +1750, and to be informed that such an instrument Handel felt himself +fortunate to possess! + +Next, the piano,--invented at Florence in 1710, by Bartolommeo +Cristofali. + +The essential difference between a harpsichord and a piano is described +by the first name given to the piano, which was _hammer-harpsichord_, i. +e. a harpsichord the strings of which were struck by hammers, not +twanged by quills. The next name given to it was _forte-piano_, which +signified soft, with power; and this name became _piano-forte_, which it +still retains. One hundred years were required to prove to the musical +public the value of an invention without which no further development of +stringed instruments had been possible. No improvement in the mere +mechanism of the harpsichord could ever have overcome the trivial effect +of the twanging of the strings by pieces of quill; but the moment the +hammer principle was introduced, nothing was wanting but improved +mechanism to make it universal. It required, however, a century to +produce the improvements sufficient to give the piano equal standing +with the harpsichord. The first pianos gave forth a dull and feeble +sound to ears accustomed to the clear and harp-like notes of the +fashionable instrument. + +In that same upper room of the Messrs. Chickering, near the spinet just +mentioned, there is an instrument, made perhaps about the year 1800, +which explains why the piano was so slow in making its way. It resembles +in form and size a grand piano of the present time, though of coarsest +finish and most primitive construction, with thin, square, kitchen-table +legs, and wooden knobs for castors. This interesting instrument has two +rows of keys, and is _both_ a harpsichord and a piano,--one set of keys +twanging the wires, and the other set striking them. The effect of the +piano notes is so faint and dull, that we cannot wonder at the general +preference for the harpsichord for so many years. It appears to have +been a common thing in the last century to combine two or more +instruments in one. Dr. Charles Burney, writing in 1770, mentions "a +very curious keyed instrument" made under the direction of Frederick II. +of Prussia. "It is in shape like a large clavichord, has several changes +of stops, and is occasionally a harp, a harpsichord, a lute, or +piano-forte; but the most curious property of this instrument is, that, +by drawing out the keys, the hammers are transferred to different +strings. By which means a composition may be transposed half a note, a +whole note, or a flat third lower at pleasure, without the embarrassment +of different notes or clefs, real or imaginary." + +The same sprightly author tells us of "a fine Rucker harpsichord, which +he has had painted inside and out with as much delicacy as the finest +coach, or even snuff-box, I ever saw at Paris. On the outside is the +birth of Venus; and on the inside of the cover, the story of Rameau's +most famous opera, Castor and Pollux. Earth, Hell, and Elysium are there +represented; in Elysium, sitting on a bank, with a lyre in his hand, is +that celebrated composer himself." + +This gay instrument was at Paris. In Italy, the native home of music, +the keyed instruments, in 1770, Dr. Burney says, were exceedingly +inferior to those of the North of Europe. "Throughout Italy, they have +generally little octave spinets to accompany singing in private houses, +sometimes in a triangular form, but more frequently in the shape of an +old virginal; of which the keys are so noisy and the tone is so feeble, +that more wood is heard than wire. I found three English harpsichords in +the three principal cities of Italy, which are regarded by the Italians +as so many phenomena." + +To this day Italy depends upon foreign countries for her best musical +instruments. Italy can as little make a grand piano as America can +compose a grand opera. + +The history of the piano from 1710 to 1867 is nothing but a history of +the improved mechanism of the instrument. The moment the idea was +conceived of striking the strings with hammers, unlimited improvement +was possible; and though the piano of to-day is covered all over with +ingenious devices, the great, essential improvements are few in number. +The hammer, for example, may contain one hundred ingenuities, but they +are all included in the device of covering the first wooden hammers with +cloth; and the master-thought of making the whole frame of the piano of +iron suggested the line of improvement which secures the supremacy of +the piano over all other stringed instruments forever. + +Sebastian Erard, the son of a Strasbourg upholsterer, went to Paris, a +poor orphan of sixteen, in the year 1768, and, finding employment in the +establishment of a harpsichord-maker, rose rapidly to the foremanship of +the shop, and was soon in business for himself as a maker of +harpsichords, harps, and pianos. To him, perhaps, more than to any other +individual, the fine interior mechanism of the piano is indebted; and +the house founded by Sebastian Erard still produces the pianos which +enjoy the most extensive reputation in the Old World. He may be said to +have created the "action" of the piano, though his devices have been +subsequently improved upon by others. He found the piano in 1768 feeble +and unknown; he left it, at his death in 1831, the most powerful, +pleasing, and popular stringed instrument in existence; and, besides +gaining a colossal fortune for himself, he bequeathed to his nephew, +Pierre Erard, the most celebrated manufactory of pianos in the world. +Next to Erard ranks John Broadwood, a Scotchman, who came to London +about the time of Erard's arrival in Paris, and, like him, procured +employment with a harpsichord-maker, the most noted one in England. John +Broadwood was a "good apprentice," married his master's daughter, +inherited his business, and carried it on with such success, that, +to-day, the house of Broadwood and Sons is the first of its line in +England. John Broadwood was chiefly meritorious for a _general_ +improvement in the construction of the instrument. If he did not +originate many important devices, he was eager to adopt those of others, +and he made the whole instrument with British thoroughness. The strings, +the action, the case, the pedals, and all the numberless details of +mechanism received his thoughtful attention, and show to the present +time traces of his honest and intelligent mind. It was in this John +Broadwood's factory that a poor German boy named John Jacob Astor earned +the few pounds that paid his passage to America, and bought the seven +flutes which were the foundation of the great Astor estate. For several +years, the sale of the Broadwood pianos in New York was an important +part of Mr. Astor's business. He used to sell his furs in London, and +invest part of the proceeds in pianos, for exportation to New York. + +America began early to try her hand at improving the instrument. Mr. +Jefferson, in the year 1800, in one of his letters to his daughter +Martha, speaks of "a very ingenious, modest, and poor young man" in +Philadelphia, who "has invented one of the prettiest improvements in +the forte-piano I have ever seen." Mr. Jefferson, who was himself a +player upon the violin, and had some little skill upon the harpsichord, +adds, "It has tempted me to engage one for Monticello." This instrument +was an upright piano, and we have found no mention of an upright of an +earlier date. "His strings," says Mr. Jefferson, "are perpendicular, and +he contrives within that height" (not given in the published extract) +"to give his strings the same length as in the grand forte-piano, and +fixes his three unisons to the same screw, which screw is in the +direction of the strings, and therefore never yields. It scarcely gets +out of tune at all, and then, for the most part, the three unisons are +tuned at once." This is an interesting passage; for, although the +"forte-pianos" of this modest young man have left no trace upon the +history of the instrument, it shows that America had no sooner cast an +eye upon its mechanism than she set to work improving it. Can it be that +the upright piano was an American invention? It may be. The Messrs. +Broadwood, in the little book which lay upon their pianos in the +Exhibition of 1851, say that the first vertical or cabinet pianos were +constructed by William Southwell, of their house, in 1804, four years +after the date of Mr. Jefferson's letter. + +After 1800 there were a few pianos made every year in the United States, +but none that could compare with the best Erards and Broadwoods, until +the Chickering era, which began in 1823. + +The two Americans to whom music is most indebted in the United States +are Jonas Chickering, piano-maker, born in New Hampshire in 1798, and +Lowell Mason, singing teacher and composer of church tunes, born in +Massachusetts in 1792. While Lowell Mason was creating the taste for +music, Jonas Chickering was improving the instrument by which musical +taste is chiefly gratified; and both being established in Boston, each +of them was instrumental in advancing the fortunes of the other. Mr. +Mason recommended the Chickering piano to his multitudinous classes and +choirs, and thus powerfully aided to give that extent to Mr. +Chickering's business which is necessary to the production of the best +work. Both of them began their musical career, we may say, in childhood; +for Jonas Chickering was only a cabinet-maker's apprentice when he +astonished his native village by putting in excellent playing order a +battered old piano, long before laid aside; and Lowell Mason, at +sixteen, was already leading a large church choir, and drilling a brass +band. The undertaking of this brass band by a boy was an amusing +instance of Yankee audacity; for when the youth presented himself to the +newly formed band to give them their first lesson, he found so many +instruments in their hands which he had never seen nor heard of, that he +could not proceed. "Gentlemen," said he, "I see that a good many of your +instruments are out of order, and most of them need a little oil, or +something of the kind. Our best plan will be to adjourn for a week. +Leave all your instruments with me, and I will have them in perfect +condition by the time we meet again." Before the band again came +together, the young teacher, by working night and day, had gained a +sufficient insight into the nature of the instruments to instruct those +who knew nothing of them. + +Jonas Chickering was essentially a mechanic,--a most skilful, patient, +thoughtful, faithful mechanic,--and it was his excellence as a mechanic +which enabled him to rear an establishment which, beginning with one or +two pianos a month, was producing, at the death of the founder, in 1853, +fifteen hundred pianos a year. It was he who introduced into the piano +the full iron frame. It was he who first made American pianos that were +equal to the best imported ones. He is universally recognized as the +true founder of the manufacture of the piano in the United States. No +man has, perhaps, so nobly illustrated the character of the American +mechanic, or more honored the name of American citizen. He was the soul +of benevolence, truth, and honor. When we have recovered a little more +from the infatuation which invests "public men" with supreme importance, +we shall better know how to value those heroes of the apron, who, by a +life of conscientious toil, place a new source of happiness, or of +force, within the reach of their fellow-citizens. + +Henry Steinway, the founder of the great house of Steinway and Sons, has +had a career not unlike that of Mr. Chickering. He also, in his native +Brunswick, amused his boyhood by repairing old instruments of music, and +making new ones. He made a cithara and a guitar for himself with only +such tools as a boy can command. He also was apprenticed to a +cabinet-maker, and was drawn away, by natural bias, from the business he +had learned, to the making of organs and pianos. For many years he was a +German piano-maker, producing, in the slow, German manner, two or three +excellent instruments a month; striving ever after higher excellence, +and growing more and more dissatisfied with the limited sphere in which +the inhabitant of a small German state necessarily works. In 1849, being +then past fifty years of age, and the father of four intelligent and +gifted sons, he looked to America for a wider range and a more promising +home for his boys. With German prudence, he sent one of them to New York +to see what prospect there might be there for another maker of pianos. +Charles Steinway came, saw, approved, returned, reported; and in 1850 +all the family reached New York, except the eldest son, Theodore, who +succeeded to his father's business in Brunswick. Henry Steinway again +showed himself wise in not immediately going into business. Depositing +the capital he had brought with him in a safe place, he donned once more +the journeyman's apron, and worked for three years in a New York piano +factory to learn the ways of the trade in America; and his sons obtained +similar employment,--one of them, fortunately, becoming a tuner, which +brought him into relations with many music-teachers. During these three +years, their knowledge and their capital increased every day, for they +lived as wise men in such circumstances do live who mean to control +their destiny. In plain English, they kept their eyes open, and lived on +half their income. In 1853, in a small back shop in Varick Street, with +infinite pains, they made their first piano, and a number of teachers +and amateurs were invited to listen to it. It was warmly approved and +speedily sold. Ten men were employed, who produced for the next two +years one piano a week. In 1855, the Messrs. Steinway, still unknown to +the public, placed one of their best instruments in the New York Crystal +Palace Exhibition. A member of the musical jury has recorded the scene +which occurred when the jury came to this unknown competitor:-- + +"They were pursuing their rounds, and performing their duties with an +ease and facility that promised a speedy termination to their labors, +when suddenly they came upon an instrument that, from its external +appearance,--solidly rich, yet free from the frippery that was then +rather in fashion,--attracted their attention. One of the company opened +the case, and carelessly struck a few chords. The others were doing the +same with its neighbors, but somehow they ceased to chatter when the +other instrument began to speak. One by one the jurors gathered round +the strange polyphonist, and, without a word being spoken, every one +knew that it was the best piano-forte in the Exhibition. The jurors were +true to their duties. It is possible that some of them had predilections +in favor of other makers; it is certain that one of them had,--the +writer of the present notice. But when the time for the award came, +there was no argument, no discussion, no bare presentment of minor +claims; nothing, in fact, but a hearty indorsement of the singular +merits of the strange instrument." + +From that time the Steinways made rapid progress. The tide of +California gold was flowing in, and every day some one was getting rich +enough to treat his family to a new piano. It was the Messrs. Steinway +who chiefly supplied the new demand, without lessening by one instrument +a month the business of older houses. Various improvements in the +framing and mechanism of the piano have been invented and introduced by +them; and, while some members of the family have superintended the +manufacture, others have conducted the not less difficult business of +selling. To this hour, the father of the family, in the dress of a +workman, attends daily at the factory, as vigilant and active as ever, +though now past seventy; and his surviving sons are as laboriously +engaged in assisting him as they were in the infancy of the +establishment. + +Besides the Chickerings and the Steinways, there are twenty +manufacturers in the United States whose production exceeds one hundred +pianos per annum. Messrs. Knabe & Co. of Baltimore, who supply large +portions of the South and West, sold about a thousand pianos in the year +1866; W. P. Emerson of Boston, 935; Messrs. Haines Brothers of New York, +830; Messrs. Hallett and Davis of Boston, 462; Ernest Gabler of New +York, 312; Messrs. E. C. Lighte & Co. of New York, 286; Messrs. Hazelton +and Brothers of New York, 269; Albert Webber of New York, 266; Messrs. +Decker Brothers of New York, 256; Messrs. George Steck and Co. of New +York, 244; W. I. Bradbury of New York, 244; Messrs. Lindeman and Sons of +New York, 223; the New York Piano-forte Company, 139. About one half of +all the pianos made in the United States are made in the city of New +York. + +To visit one of our large manufactories of pianos is a lesson in the +noble art of taking pains. Genius itself, says Carlyle, means, first of +all, "a transcendent capacity for taking trouble." Everywhere in these +vast and interesting establishments we find what we may call the +perfection of painstaking. + +The construction of an American piano is a continual act of defensive +warfare against the future inroads of our climate,--a climate which is +polar for a few days in January, tropical for a week or two in July, +Nova-Scotian now and then in November, and at all times most trying to +the finer woods, leathers, and fabrics. To make a piano is now not so +difficult; but to make one that will stand in America,--that is very +difficult. In the rear of the Messrs. Steinway's factory there is a yard +for seasoning timber, which usually contains an amount of material equal +to two hundred and fifty thousand ordinary boards, an inch thick and +twelve feet long; and there it remains from four months to five years, +according to its nature and magnitude. Most of the timber used in an +American piano requires two years' seasoning at least. From this yard it +is transferred to the steam-drying house, where it remains subjected to +a high temperature for three months. The wood has then lost nearly all +the warp there ever was in it, and the temperature may change fifty +degrees in twelve hours (as it does sometimes in New York) without +seriously affecting a fibre. Besides this, the timber is sawed in such a +manner as to neutralize, in some degree, its tendency to warp, or, +rather, so as to make it warp the right way. The reader would be +surprised to hear the great makers converse on this subject of the +warping of timber. They have studied the laws which govern warping; they +know why wood warps, how each variety warps, how long a time each kind +continues to warp, and how to fit one warp against another, so as to +neutralize both. If two or more pieces of wood are to be glued together, +it is never done at random; but they are so adjusted that one will tend +to warp one way, and another another. Even the thin veneers upon the +case act as a restraining force upon the baser wood which they cover, +and in some parts of the instrument the veneer is double for the purpose +of keeping both in order. An astonishing amount of thought and +experiment has been expended upon this matter of warping,--so much, +that now not a piece of wood is employed in a piano, the grain of which +does not run in the precise direction which experience has shown to be +the best. + +The forests of the whole earth have been searched for woods adapted to +the different parts of the instrument. Dr. Rimbault, in his learned +"History of the Piano-forte," published recently in London, gives a +catalogue of the various woods, metals, skins, and fabrics used in the +construction of a piano, which forcibly illustrates the delicacy of the +modern instrument and the infinite care taken in its manufacture. We +copy the list, though some of the materials differ from those used by +American manufacturers. + +MATERIALS. WHERE USED. + +_Woods._ _From_ + +Oak Riga Framing, various parts. + +Deal Norway Wood-bracing, &c. + +Fir Switzerland Sounding-board. + +Pine America Parts of framing, key-bed + or bottom. + +Mahogany Honduras Solid wood of top, and various + parts of the framing + and the action. + +Beech England Wrest-plank, bridge or + sound-board, centre of + legs. + +Beef-wood Brazils Tongues in the beam, + forming the divisions + between the hammers. + +Birch Canada Belly-rail, a part of the + framing. + +Cedar S. America Round shanks of hammers. + +Lime-tree England Keys. + +Pear-tree ---- Heads of dampers. + +Sycamore ---- Hoppers or levers, veneers + on wrest-plank. + +Ebony Ceylon Black keys. + +Spanish \ +Mahogany Cuba \ +Rosewood Rio Janeiro | +Satinwood East Indies |-- For decoration. +White Holly England | +Zebra-wood Brazils | +Other fancy / +woods / + + +_Woollen Fabrics._ + +Baize; green, blue, + and brown Upper surface of key-frame, + cushions for hammers to fall + on, to damp dead part of + strings, &c. + +Cloth, various qualities For various parts of the action + and in other places, to prevent + jarring; also for dampers. + +Felt External covering for hammers. + + +_Leather._ + +Buffalo Under-covering of hammers-bass. +Saddle " " tenor and treble. +Basil \ +Calf | +Doeskin |-- Various parts of action. +Seal | +Sheepskin | +Morocco / +Sole Rings for pedal wires. + + +_Metal._ + +Iron \ Metallic bracing, and in various small +Steel |-- screws, springs, centres, pins, &c., +Brass | &c., throughout the instrument. +Gun metal / +Steel wire Strings. +Steel spun wire Lapped strings. +Covered copper wire " " lowest notes. + + +_Various._ + +Ivory White keys. + +Black lead To smooth the rubbing surfaces of cloth + or leather in the action. + +Glue (of a particular quality \ +made expressly for |-- Woodwork throughout. +this trade. / + +Beeswax, emery paper, \ +glass paper, French polish, |-- Cleaning and finishing. +oil, putty powder, | +spirits of wine, &c., &c. / + +Such are the materials used. The processes to which they are subjected +are far more numerous. So numerous are they and so complicated, that the +Steinways, who employ five hundred and twelve men, and labor-saving +machinery which does the work of five hundred men more, aided by three +steam-engines of a hundred and twenty-five, fifty, and twenty-five +horse-power, can only produce from forty-five to fifty-five pianos a +week. The average number is about fifty,--six grand, four upright, and +forty square. The reader has seen, doubtless, a piano with the top taken +off; but perhaps it has never occurred to him what a tremendous _pull_ +those fifty to sixty strings are keeping up, day and night, from one +year's end to another. The shortest and thinnest string of all pulls two +hundred and sixty-two pounds,--about as much as we should care to lift; +and the entire pull of the strings of a grand piano is sixty pounds less +than twenty tons,--a load for twenty cart-horses. The fundamental +difficulty in the construction of a piano has always been to support +this continuous strain. When we look into a piano we see the "iron +frame" so much vaunted in the advertisements, and so splendid with +bronze and gilding; but it is not this thin plate of cast-iron that +resists the strain of twenty tons. If the wires were to pull upon the +iron for one second, it would fly into atoms. The iron plate is screwed +to what is called the "bottom" of the piano, which is a mass of timber +four inches thick, composed of three layers of plank glued together, and +so arranged that the pull of the wires shall be in a line with the grain +of the wood. The iron plate itself is subjected to a long course of +treatment. The rough casting is brought from the foundery, placed under +the drilling-machine, which bores many scores of holes of various sizes +with marvellous rapidity. Then it is smoothed and finished with the +file; next, it is japanned; after which it is baked in an oven for +forty-eight hours. It is then ready for the bronzer and gilder, who +covers the greater part of the surface with a light-yellow bronzing, and +brightens it here and there with gilding. All this long process is +necessary in order to make the plate _retain_ its brilliancy of color. + +Upon this solid foundation of timber and iron the delicate instrument is +built, and it is enclosed in a case constructed with still greater care. +To make so large a box, and one so thin, as the case of a piano stand +our summer heats and our furnace heats (still more trying), is a work of +extreme difficulty. The seasoned boards are covered with a double +veneer, designed to counteract all the tendencies to warp; and the +surface is most laboriously polished. It takes three months to varnish +and polish the case of a piano. In such a factory as the Steinways' or +the Chickerings', there will be always six or seven hundred cases +undergoing this expensive process. When the surface of the wood has been +made as smooth as sand-paper can make it, the first coat of varnish is +applied, and this requires eight days to harden. Then all the varnish is +scraped off, except that which has sunk into the pores of the wood. The +second coat is then put on; which, after eight days' drying, is also +scraped away, until the surface of the veneer is laid bare again. After +this four or five coats of varnish are added, at intervals of eight +days, and, finally, the last polish is produced by the hand of the +workman. The object of all this is not merely to produce a splendid and +enduring gloss, but to make the case stand for a hundred years in a room +which is heated by a furnace to seventy degrees by day, and in which +water will freeze at night. During the war, when good varnish cost as +much as the best champagne, the varnish bills of the leading makers were +formidable indeed. + +The labor, however, is the chief item of expense. The average wages of +the five hundred and twelve men employed by the Messrs. Steinway is +twenty-six dollars a week. This force, aided by one hundred and two +labor-saving machines, driven by steam-power equivalent to two hundred +horses, produces a piano in one hour and fifteen minutes. A man with the +ordinary tools can make a piano in about four months, but it could not +possibly be as good a one as those produced in the large establishments. +Nor, indeed, is such a feat ever attempted in the United States. The +small makers, who manufacture from one to five instruments a week, +generally, as already mentioned, buy the different parts from persons +who make only parts. It is a business to make the hammers of a piano; it +is another business to make the "action"; another, to make the keys; +another, the legs; another, the cases; another, the pedals. The +manufacture of the hardware used in a piano is a very important branch, +and it is a separate business to sell it. The London Directory +enumerates forty-two different trades and businesses related to the +piano, and we presume there are not fewer in New York. Consequently, +any man who knows enough of a piano to put one together, and can command +capital enough to buy the parts of one instrument, may boldly fling his +sign to the breeze, and announce himself to an inattentive public as a +"piano-forte-maker." The only difficulty is to sell the piano when it is +put together. At present it costs rather more money to sell a piano than +it does to make one. + +When the case is finished, all except the final hand-polish, it is taken +to the sounding-board room. The sounding-board--a thin, clear sheet of +spruce under the strings--is the piano's soul, wanting which, it were a +dead thing. Almost every resonant substance in nature has been tried for +sounding-boards, but nothing has been found equal to spruce. Countless +experiments have been made with a view to ascertain precisely the best +way of shaping, arranging, and fixing the sounding-board, the best +thickness, the best number and direction of the supporting ribs; and +every great maker is happy in the conviction that he is a little better +in sounding-boards than any of his rivals. Next, the strings are +inserted; next, the action and the keys. Every one will pause to admire +the hammers of the piano, so light, yet so capable of giving a telling +blow, which evoke all the music of the strings, but mingle with that +music no click, nor thud, nor thump, of their own. The felt employed +varies in thickness from one sixteenth of an inch to an inch and an +eighth, and costs $5.75 in gold per pound. Only Paris, it seems, can +make it good enough for the purpose. Many of the keys have a double +felting, compressed from an inch and a half to three quarters of an +inch, and others again have an outer covering of leather to keep the +strings from cutting the felt. Simple as the finished hammer looks, +there are a hundred and fifty years of thought and experiment in it. It +required half a century to exhaust the different kinds of wood, bone, +and cork; and when, about 1760, the idea was conceived of covering the +hammers with something soft, another century was to elapse before all +the leathers and fabrics had been tried, and felt found to be the _ne +plus ultra_. With regard to the action, or the mechanism by which the +hammers are made to strike the strings, we must refer the inquisitive +reader to the piano itself. + +When all the parts have been placed in the case, the instrument falls +into the hands of the "regulator," who inspects, rectifies, tunes, +harmonizes, perfects the whole. Nothing then remains but to convey it to +the store, give it its final polish and its last tuning. + +The next thing is to sell it. Six hundred and fifty dollars seems a high +price for a square piano, such as we used to buy for three hundred, and +the "natural cost" of which does not much exceed two hundred dollars. +Fifteen hundred dollars for a grand piano is also rather startling. But +how much tax, does the reader suppose, is paid upon a +fifteen-hundred-dollar grand? It is difficult to compute it; but it does +not fall much below two hundred dollars. The five per cent +manufacturer's tax, which is paid upon the price of the finished +instrument, has also to be paid upon various parts, such as the wire; +and upon the imported articles there is a high tariff. It is computed +that the taxes upon very complicated articles, in which a great variety +of materials are employed, such as carriages, pianos, organs, and fine +furniture, amount to about one eighth of the price. The piano, too, is +an expensive creature to keep, in these times of high rents, and its +fare upon a railroad is higher than that of its owner. We saw, however, +a magnificent piano, the other day, at the establishment of Messrs. +Chickering, in Broadway, for which passage had been secured all the way +to Oregon for thirty-five dollars,--only five dollars more than it would +cost to transport it to Chicago. Happily for us, to whom fifteen hundred +dollars--nay, six hundred and fifty dollars--is an enormous sum of +money, a very good second-hand piano is always attainable for less than +half the original price. + +For, reader, you must know that the ostentation of the rich is always +putting costly pleasures within the reach of the refined not-rich. A +piano in its time plays many parts, and figures in a variety of scenes. +Like the more delicate and sympathetic kinds of human beings, it is +naught unless it is valued; but, being valued, it is a treasure beyond +price. Cold, glittering, and dumb, it stands among the tasteless +splendors with which the wealthy ignorant cumber their dreary abodes,--a +thing of ostentation merely,--as uninteresting as the women who surround +it, gorgeously apparelled, but without conversation, conscious of +defective parts of speech. "There is much music, excellent voice, in +that little organ," but there is no one there who can "make it speak." +They may "fret" the noble instrument; they "cannot play upon it." + +But a fool and his nine-hundred-dollar piano are soon parted. The red +flag of the auctioneer announces its transfer to a drawing-room +frequented by persons capable of enjoying the refined pleasures. Bright +and joyous is the scene, about half past nine in the evening, when, by +turns, the ladies try over their newest pieces, or else listen with +intelligent pleasure to the performance of a master. Pleasant are the +informal family concerts in such a house, when one sister breaks down +under the difficulties of Thalberg, and yields the piano-stool to the +musical genius of the family, who takes up the note, and, dashing gayly +into the midst of "Egitto," forces a path through the wilderness, takes +the Red Sea like a heroine, bursts at length into the triumphal prayer, +and retires from the instrument as calm as a summer morning. On +occasions of ceremony, too, the piano has a part to perform, though a +humble one. Awkward pauses will occur in all but the best-regulated +parties, and people will get together, in the best houses, who quench +and neutralize one another. It is the piano that fills those pauses, and +gives a welcome respite to the toil of forcing conversation. How could +"society" go on without the occasional interposition of the piano? One +hundred and sixty years ago, in those days beloved and vaunted by +Thackeray, when Louis XIV. was king of France, and Anne queen of +England, society danced, tattled, and gambled. Cards have receded as the +piano has advanced in importance. + +From such a drawing-room as this, after a stay of some years, the piano +may pass into a boarding-school, and thence into the sitting-room of a +family who have pinched for two years to buy it. "It must have been," +says Henry Ward Beecher, "about the year 1820, in old Litchfield, +Connecticut, upon waking one fine morning, that we heard music in the +parlor, and, hastening down, beheld an upright piano, the first we ever +saw or heard of! Nothing can describe the amazement of silence that +filled us. It rose almost to superstitious reverence, and all that day +was a dream and marvel." It is such pianos that are appreciated. It is +in such parlors that the instrument best answers the end of its +creation. There is many a piano in the back room of a little store, or +in the uncarpeted sitting-room of a farm-house, that yields a larger +revenue of delight than the splendid grand of a splendid drawing-room. +In these humble abodes of refined intelligence, the piano is a dear and +honored member of the family. + +The piano now has a rival in the United States in that fine instrument +before mentioned, which has grown from the melodeon into the cabinet +organ. We do not hesitate to say, that the cabinet organs of Messrs. +Mason and Hamlin only need to be as generally known as the piano in +order to share the favor of the public equally with it. It seems to us +peculiarly the instrument for _men_. We trust the time is at hand when +it will be seen that it is not less desirable for boys to learn to play +upon an instrument than girls; and how much more a little skill in +performing may do for a man than for a woman! A boy can hardly be a +perfect savage, nor a man a money-maker or a pietist, who has acquired +sufficient command of an instrument to play upon it with pleasure. How +often, when we have been listening to the swelling music of the cabinet +organs at the ware-rooms of Messrs. Mason and Hamlin in Broadway, have +we desired to put one of those instruments in every clerk's +boarding-house room, and tell him to take all the ennui, and half the +peril, out of his life by learning to play upon it! No business man who +works as intensely as we do can keep alive the celestial harmonies +within him,--no, nor the early wrinkles from his face,--without some +such pleasant mingling of bodily rest and mental exercise as playing +upon an instrument. + +The simplicity of the means by which music is produced from the cabinet +organ is truly remarkable. It is called a "reed" instrument; which leads +many to suppose that the cane-brake is despoiled to procure its +sound-giving apparatus. Not so. The reed employed is nothing but a thin +strip of brass with a tongue slit in it, the vibration of which causes +the musical sound. One of the reeds, though it produces a volume of +sound only surpassed by the pipes of an organ, weighs about an ounce, +and can be carried in a vest-pocket. In fact, a cabinet organ is simply +an accordeon of immense power and improved mechanism. Twenty years ago, +one of our melodeon-makers chanced to observe that the accordeon +produced a better tone when it was drawn out than when it was pushed in; +and this fact suggested the first great improvement in the melodeon. +Before that time, the wind from the bellows, in all melodeons, was +forced through the reeds. Melodeons on the improved principle were +constructed so that the wind was drawn through the reeds. The credit of +introducing this improvement is due to the well-known firm of Carhart, +Needham, & Co., and it was as decided an improvement in the melodeon as +the introduction of the hammer in the harpsichord. + +At this point of development, the instrument was taken up by Messrs. +Mason and Hamlin, who have covered it with improvements, and rendered it +one of the most pleasing musical instruments in the possession of +mankind. When we remarked above, that the American piano was the best in +the world, we only expressed the opinion of others; but now that we +assert the superiority of the American cabinet organ over similar +instruments made in London and Paris, we are communicating knowledge of +our own. Indeed, the superiority is so marked that it is apparent to the +merest tyro in music. During the year 1866, the number of these +instruments produced in the United States by the twenty-five +manufacturers was about fifteen thousand, which were sold for one +million six hundred thousand dollars, or a little more than one hundred +dollars each. Messrs. Mason and Hamlin, who manufacture one fourth of +the whole number, produce thirty-five kinds, varying in power, compass, +and decoration, and in price from seventy-five dollars to twelve +hundred. In the new towns of the great West, the cabinet organ is +usually the first instrument of music to arrive, and, of late years, it +takes its place with the piano in the fashionable drawing-rooms of the +Atlantic States. + +Few Americans, we presume, expected that the department of the Paris +Exposition in which the United States should most surpass other nations +would be that appropriated to musical instruments. Even our cornets and +bugles are highly commended in Paris. The cabinet organs, according to +several correspondents, are much admired. We can hardly credit the +assertion of an intelligent correspondent of the Tribune, that the +superiority of the American pianos is not "questioned" by Erard, Pleyel, +and Hertz, but we can well believe that it is acknowledged by the great +players congregated at Paris. The aged Rossini is reported to have said, +after listening to an American piano, "It is like a nightingale cooing +in a thunder-storm." + + + + +AN EMBER-PICTURE. + + + How strange are the freaks of memory! + The lessons of life we forget, + While a trifle, a trick of color, + In the wonderful web is set,-- + + Set by some mordant of fancy, + And, despite the wear and tear + Of time or distance or trouble, + Insists on its right to be there. + + A chance had brought us together; + Our talk was of matters of course; + We were nothing, one to the other, + But a short half-hour's resource. + + We spoke of French acting and actors, + And their easy, natural way,-- + Of the weather, for it was raining + As we drove home from the play. + + We debated the social nothings + Men take such pains to discuss; + The thunderous rumors of battle + Were silent the while for us. + + Arrived at her door, we left her + With a drippingly hurried adieu, + And our wheels went crunching the gravel + Of the oak-darkened avenue. + + As we drove away through the shadow, + The candle she held in the door, + From rain-varnished tree-trunk to tree-trunk + Flashed fainter, and flashed no more,-- + + Flashed fainter and wholly faded + Before we had passed the wood; + But the light of the face behind it + Went with me and stayed for good. + + The vision of scarce a moment, + And hardly marked at the time, + It comes unbidden to haunt me, + Like a scrap of ballad-rhyme. + + Had she beauty? Well, not what they call so: + You may find a thousand as fair, + And yet there's her face in my memory, + With no special right to be there. + + As I sit sometimes in the twilight, + And call back to life in the coals + Old faces and hopes and fancies + Long buried,--good rest to their souls!-- + + Her face shines out of the embers; + I see her holding the light, + And hear the crunch of the gravel + And the sweep of the rain that night. + + 'Tis a face that can never grow older, + That never can part with its gleam; + 'Tis a gracious possession forever, + For what is it all but a dream? + + + + +AN ARTIST'S DREAM. + + +When I reached Kenmure's house, one August evening, it was rather a +disappointment to find that he and his charming Laura had absented +themselves for twenty-four hours. I had not seen them since their +marriage; my admiration for his varied genius and her unvarying grace +was at its height, and I was really annoyed at the delay. My fair +cousin, with her usual exact housekeeping, had prepared everything for +her guest, and then bequeathed me, as she wrote, to Janet and baby +Marian. It was a pleasant arrangement, for between baby Marian and me +there existed a species of passion, I might almost say of betrothal, +ever since that little three-year-old sunbeam had blessed my mother's +house by lingering awhile in it, six months before. Still I went to bed +disappointed, though the delightful windows of the chamber looked out +upon the glimmering bay, and the swinging lanterns at the yard-arms of +the frigates shone like some softer constellation beneath the brilliant +sky. The house was so close upon the water that the cool waves seemed to +plash deliciously against its very basement; and it was a comfort to +think that, if there were no adequate human greetings that night, there +would be plenty in the morning, since Marian would inevitably be pulling +my eyelids apart before sunrise. + +It seemed scarcely dawn when I was roused by a little arm round my neck, +and waked to think I had one of Raphael's cherubs by my side. Fingers of +waxen softness were ruthlessly at work upon my eyes, and the little form +that met my touch felt lithe and elastic, like a kitten's limbs. There +was just light enough to see the child, perched on the edge of the bed, +her soft blue dressing-gown trailing over the white night-dress, while +her black and long-fringed eyes shone through the dimness of morning. +She yielded gladly to my grasp, and I could fondle again the silken +hair, the velvety brunette cheek, the plump, childish shoulders. Yet +sleep still half held me, and when my cherub appeared to hold it a +cherubic practice to begin the day with a demand for lively anecdote, I +was fain drowsily to suggest that she might first tell some stories to +her doll. With the sunny readiness that was a part of her nature, she +straightway turned to that young lady,--plain Susan Halliday, with both +cheeks patched, and eyes of different colors,--and soon discoursed both +her and me into repose. + +When I waked again, it was to find the child conversing with the morning +star, which still shone through the window, scarcely so lucent as her +eyes, and bidding it go home to its mother, the sun. Another lapse into +dreams, and then a more vivid awakening, and she had my ear at last, and +won story after story, requiting them with legends of her own youth, +"almost a year ago,"--how she was perilously lost, for instance, in the +small front yard, with a little playmate, early in the afternoon, and +how they came and peeped into the window, and thought all the world had +forgotten them. Then the sweet voice, distinct in its articulation as +Laura's, went straying off into wilder fancies, a chaos of autobiography +and conjecture, like the letters of a war correspondent. You would have +thought her little life had yielded more pangs and fears than might have +sufficed for the discovery of the North Pole; but breakfast-time drew +near at last, and Janet's honest voice was heard outside the door. I +rather envied the good Scotchwoman the pleasant task of polishing the +smooth cheeks, and combing the dishevelled silk; but when, a little +later, the small maiden was riding down stairs in my arms, I envied no +one. + +At sight of the bread and milk, my cherub was transformed into a hungry +human child, chiefly anxious to reach the bottom of her porringer. I was +with her a great deal that day. She gave no manner of trouble: it was +like having the charge of a floating butterfly, endowed with warm arms +to clasp, and a silvery voice to prattle. I sent Janet out to sail, with +the other servants, by way of holiday, and Marian's perfect temperament +was shown in the way she watched the departing. + +"There they go," she said, as she stood and danced at the window. "Now +they are out of sight." + +"What!" I said, "are you pleased to have your friends go?" + +"Yes," she answered; "but I shall be pleased--er to see them come +back." Life to her was no alternation of joy and grief, but only of joy +and more joyous. + +Twilight brought us to an improvised concert. Climbing the piano-stool, +she went over the notes with her little taper fingers, touching the keys +in a light, knowing way, that proved her a musician's child. Then I must +play for her, and let the dance begin. This was a wondrous performance +on her part, and consisted at first in hopping up and down on one spot, +with no change of motion, but in her hands. She resembled a minute and +irrepressible Shaker, or a live and beautiful _marionnette_. Then she +placed Janet in the middle of the floor, and performed the dance round +her, after the manner of Vivien and Merlin. Then came her supper, which, +like its predecessors, was a solid and absorbing meal; then one more +fairy story, to magnetize her off, and she danced and sang herself up +stairs. And if she first came to me in the morning with a halo round her +head, she seemed still to retain it when I at last watched her kneeling +in the little bed--perfectly motionless, with her hands placed together, +and her long lashes sweeping her cheeks--to repeat two verses of a hymn +which Janet had taught her. My nerves quivered a little when I saw that +Susan Halliday had also been duly prepared for the night, and had been +put in the same attitude, so far as her jointless anatomy permitted. +This being ended, the doll and her mistress reposed together, and only +an occasional toss of the vigorous limbs, or a stifled baby murmur, +would thenceforth prove, through the darkened hours, that the one figure +had in it more of life than the other. + +On the next morning Kenmure and Laura came back to us, and I walked down +to receive them at the boat. I had forgotten how striking was their +appearance, as they stood together. His broad, strong, Saxon look, his +noble bearing and clear blue eyes, enhanced the fascination of her +darker beauty. + +America is full of the short-lived bloom and freshness of girlhood; but +grace is a rarer gift, and indeed it is only a few times in life that +one sees anywhere a beauty that really controls us with a permanent +charm. One should remember such personal loveliness, as one recalls some +particular moonlight or sunset, with a special and concentrated joy, +which the multiplicity of fainter impressions cannot disturb. When in +those days we used to read, in Petrarch's one hundred and twenty-third +sonnet, that he had once beheld on earth angelic manners and celestial +charms, whose very remembrance was a delight and an affliction, since +all else that he beheld seemed dream and shadow, we could easily fancy +that nature had certain permanent attributes which accompanied the name +of Laura. + +Our Laura had that rich brunette beauty before which the mere snow and +roses of the blonde must always seem wan and unimpassioned. In the +superb suffusions of her cheek there seemed to flow a tide of passions +and powers, which might have been tumultuous in a meaner woman, but over +which, in her, the clear and brilliant eyes, and the sweet, proud mouth, +presided in unbroken calm. These superb tints implied resources only, +not a struggle. With this torrent from the tropics in her veins, she was +the most equable person I ever saw; and had a supreme and delicate +good-sense, which, if not supplying the place of genius, at least +comprehended its work. Not intellectually gifted herself, perhaps, she +seemed the cause of gifts in others, and furnished the atmosphere in +which all showed their best. With the steady and thoughtful enthusiasm +of her Puritan ancestors, she combined that grace which is so rare among +their descendants,--a grace which fascinated the humblest, while it +would have been just the same in the society of kings. And her person +had the equipoise and symmetry of her mind. While abounding in separate +points of beauty, each a source of distinct and peculiar pleasure,--as +the outline of her temples, the white line that parted her night-black +hair, the bend of her wrists, the moulding of her finger-tips,--yet +these details were lost in the overwhelming gracefulness of her +presence, and the atmosphere of charm which she diffused over all human +life. + +A few days passed rapidly by us. We walked and rode and boated and read. +Little Marian came and went, a living sunbeam, a self-sufficing thing. +It was soon obvious that she was far less demonstrative towards her +parents than towards me; while her mother, gracious to her as to all, +yet rarely caressed her, and Kenmure, though habitually kind, seemed +rather to ignore her existence, and could scarcely tolerate that she +should for one instant preoccupy his wife. For Laura he lived, and she +must live for him. He had a studio, which I rarely entered and Marian +never, while Laura was constantly there; and after the first cordiality +was past, I observed that their daily expeditions were always arranged +for two. The weather was beautiful, and they led the wildest outdoor +life, cruising all day or all night among the islands, regardless of +hours, and, as it sometimes seemed to me, of health. No matter: Kenmure +liked it, and what he liked she loved. When at home, they were chiefly +in the studio, he painting, modelling, poetizing perhaps, and she +inseparably united with him in all. It was very beautiful, this +unworldly and passionate love, and I could have borne to be omitted in +their daily plans, since little Marian was left to me, save that it +seemed so strange to omit her also. Besides, there grew to be something +a little oppressive in this peculiar atmosphere; it was like living in a +greenhouse. + +Yet they always spoke in the simplest way of this absorbing passion, as +of something about which no reticence was needed; it was too sacred +_not_ to be mentioned; it would be wrong not to utter freely to all the +world what was doubtless the best thing the world possessed. Thus +Kenmure made Laura his model in all his art; not to coin her into wealth +or fame,--he would have scorned it; he would have valued fame and +wealth only as instruments for proclaiming her. Looking simply at these +two lovers, then, it seemed as if no human union could be more noble or +stainless. Yet so far as others were concerned, it sometimes seemed to +me a kind of duplex selfishness, so profound and so undisguised as to +make one shudder. "Is it," I asked myself at such moments, "a great +consecration, or a great crime?" But something must be allowed, perhaps, +for my own private dissatisfactions in Marian's behalf. + +I had easily persuaded Janet to let me have a peep every night at my +darling, as she slept; and once I was surprised to find Laura sitting by +the small white bed. Graceful and beautiful as she always was, she never +before had seemed to me so lovely, for she never had seemed quite like a +mother. But I could not demand a sweeter look of tenderness than that +with which she now gazed upon her child. + +Little Marian lay with one brown, plump hand visible from its full white +sleeve, while the other nestled half hid beneath the sheet, grasping a +pair of blue morocco shoes, the last acquisition of her favorite doll. +Drooping from beneath the pillow hung a handful of scarlet poppies, +which the child had wished to place under her head, in the very +superfluous project of putting herself to sleep thereby. Her soft brown +hair was scattered on the sheet, her black lashes lay motionless upon +the olive cheeks. Laura wished to move her, that I might see her the +better. + +"You will wake her," exclaimed I, in alarm. + +"Wake this little dormouse?" Laura lightly answered. "Impossible." + +And, twining her arms about her, the young mother lifted the child from +the bed, three or four times, dropping her again heavily each time, +while the healthy little creature remained utterly undisturbed, +breathing the same quiet breath. I watched Laura with amazement; she +seemed transformed. + +She gayly returned my eager look, and then, seeming suddenly to +penetrate its meaning, cast down her radiant eyes, while the color +mounted into her cheeks. "You thought," she said, almost sternly, "that +I did not love my child." + +"No," I said, half untruthfully. + +"I can hardly wonder," she continued, more sadly, "for it is only what I +have said to myself a thousand times. Sometimes I think that I have +lived in a dream, and one that few share with me. I have questioned +others, and never yet found a woman who did not admit that her child was +more to her, in her secret soul, than her husband. What can they mean? +Such a thought is foreign to my nature." + +"Why separate the two?" I asked. + +"I _must_ separate them," she answered, with the air of one driven to +bay by her own self-reproaching. "I had, like other young girls, my +dream of love and marriage. Unlike all the rest, I believe, my visions +were fulfilled. The reality was more than the imagination; and I thought +it would be so with my love for my child. The first cry of that baby +told the difference to my ear. I knew it all from that moment; the bliss +which had been mine as a wife would never be mine as a mother. If I had +not known what it was to love my husband, I might have been content with +my love for Marian. But look at that exquisite creature as she lies +there asleep, and then think that I, her mother, should desert her if +she were dying, for aught I know, at one word from him!" + +"Your feeling is morbid," I said, hardly knowing what to answer. + +"What good does it serve to know that?" she said, defiantly. "I say it +to myself every day. Once when she was ill, and was given back to me in +all the precious helplessness of babyhood, there was such a strange +sweetness in it, I thought the charm might remain; but it vanished when +she could run about once more. And she is such a healthy, self-reliant +little thing," added Laura, glancing toward the bed with a momentary +look of motherly pride that seemed strangely out of place amid these +self-denunciations. + +"I wish her to be so," she added. "The best service I can do for her is +to teach her to stand alone. And at some day," continued the beautiful +woman, her whole face lighting up with happiness, "she may love as I +have loved." + +"And your husband," I said, after a pause,--"does your feeling represent +his?" + +"My husband," she said, "lives for his genius, as he should. You that +know him, why do you ask?" + +"And his heart?" I said, half frightened at my own temerity. + +"Heart?" she answered. "He loves _me_." + +Her color mounted higher yet; she had a look of pride, almost of +haughtiness. All else seemed forgotten; she had turned away from the +child's little bed, as if it had no existence. It flashed upon me that +something of the poison of her artificial atmosphere was reaching her +already. + +Kenmure's step was heard in the hall, and, with fire in her eyes, she +hastened to meet him. I seemed actually to breathe freer after the +departure of that enchanting woman, in danger of perishing inwardly, I +said to myself, in an air too lavishly perfumed. Bending over Marian, I +wondered if it were indeed possible that a perfectly healthy life had +sprung from that union too intense and too absorbed. Yet I had often +noticed that the child seemed to wear the temperaments of both her +parents as a kind of playful disguise, and to peep at you, now out of +the one, now from the other, showing that she had her own individual +life behind. + +As if by some infantine instinct, the darling turned in her sleep, and +came unconsciously nearer me. With a half-feeling of self-reproach, I +drew around my neck, inch by inch, the little arms that tightened with a +delicious thrill; and so I half reclined there till I myself dozed, and +the watchful Janet, looking in, warned me away. Crossing the entry to my +own chamber, I heard Kenmure and Laura down stairs, but I knew that I +should be superfluous, and felt that I was sleepy. + +I had now, indeed, become always superfluous when they were together, +though never when they were apart. Even they must be separated +sometimes, and then each sought me, in order to discourse about the +other. Kenmure showed me every sketch he had ever made of Laura. There +she was, in all the wonderful range of her beauty,--in clay, in cameo, +in pencil, in water-color, in oils. He showed me also his poems, and, at +last, a longer one, for which pencil and graver had alike been laid +aside. All these he kept in a great cabinet she had brought with her to +their housekeeping; and it seemed to me that he also treasured every +flower she had dropped, every slender glove she had worn, every ribbon +from her hair. I could not wonder. Who would not thrill at the touch of +some such memorial of Mary of Scotland, or of Heloise? and what was all +the regal beauty of the past to him? Every room always seemed adorned +when she was in it, empty when she had gone,--save that the trace of her +still seemed left on everything, and all appeared but as a garment she +had worn. It seemed that even her great mirror must retain, film over +film, each reflection of her least movement, the turning of her head, +the ungloving of her hand. Strange! that, with all this intoxicating +presence, she yet led a life so free from self, so simple, so absorbed, +that all trace of consciousness was excluded, and she seemed +unsophisticated as her own child. + +As we were once thus employed in the studio, I asked Kenmure, abruptly, +if he never shrank from the publicity he was thus giving Laura. "Madame +Recamier was not quite pleased," I said, "that Canova had modelled her +bust, even from imagination. Do you never shrink from permitting +irreverent eyes to look on Laura's beauty? Think of men as you know +them. Would you give each of them her miniature, perhaps to go with them +into scenes of riot and shame?" + +"Would to Heaven I could!" said he, passionately. "What else could save +them, if that did not? God lets his sun shine on the evil and on the +good, but the evil need it most." + +There was a pause; and then I ventured to ask him a question that had +been many times upon my lips unspoken. + +"Does it never occur to you," I said, "that Laura cannot live on earth +forever?" + +"You cannot disturb me about that," he answered, not sadly, but with a +set, stern look, as if fencing for the hundredth time against an +antagonist who was foredoomed to be his master in the end. "Laura will +outlive me; she must outlive me. I am so sure of it, that, every time I +come near her, I pray that I may not be paralyzed, and die outside her +arms. Yet, in any event, what can I do but what I am doing,--devote my +whole soul to the perpetuation of her beauty, through art? It is my only +dream. What else is worth doing? It is for this I have tried, through +sculpture, through painting, through verse, to depict her as she is. +Thus far I have failed. Why have I failed? Is it because I have not +lived a life sufficiently absorbed in her? or is it that there is no +permitted way by which, after God has reclaimed her, the tradition of +her perfect loveliness may be retained on earth?" + +The blinds of the piazza doorway opened, the sweet sea-air came in, the +low and level rays of yellow sunset entered as softly as if the breeze +were their chariot; and softer and stiller and sweeter than light or +air, little Marian stood on the threshold. She had been in the fields +with Janet, who had woven for her breeze-blown hair a wreath of the wild +gerardia blossoms, whose purple beauty had reminded the good Scotchwoman +of her own native heather. In her arms the child bore, like a little +gleaner, a great sheaf of graceful golden-rod, as large as her grasp +could bear. In all the artist's visions he had seen nothing so aerial, +so lovely; in all his passionate portraitures of his idol, he had +delineated nothing so like to her. Marian's cheeks mantled with rich and +wine-like tints, her hair took a halo from the sunbeams, her lips +parted over the little milk-white teeth; she looked at us with her +mother's eyes. I turned to Kenmure to see if he could resist the +influence. + +He scarcely gave her a glance. "Go, Marian," he said,--not impatiently, +for he was too thoroughly courteous ever to be ungracious, even to a +child,--but with a steady indifference that cut me with more pain than +if he had struck her. + +The sun dropped behind the horizon, the halo faded from the shining +hair, and every ray of light from the childish face. There came in its +place that deep, wondering sadness which is more pathetic than any +maturer sorrow,--just as a child's illness touches our hearts more than +that of man or woman, it seems so premature and so plaintive. She turned +away; it was the very first time I had ever seen the little face drawn +down, or the tears gathering in the eyes. By some kind providence, the +mother met Marian on the piazza, herself flushed and beautiful with +walking, and caught the little thing in her arms with unwonted +tenderness. It was enough for the elastic child. After one moment of +such bliss she could go to Janet, go anywhere; and when the same +graceful presence came in to us in the studio, we also could ask no +more. + +We had music and moonlight, and were happy. The atmosphere seemed more +human, less unreal. Going up stairs at last, I looked in at the nursery, +and found my pet seeming rather flushed, and I fancied that she stirred +uneasily. It passed, whatever it was; for next morning she came in to +wake me, looking, as usual, as if a new heaven and earth had been coined +purposely for her since she went to sleep. We had our usual long and +important discourse,--this time tending to protracted narrative, of the +Mother-Goose description,--until, if it had been possible for any human +being to be late for breakfast in that house, we should have been the +offenders. But she ultimately went down stairs on my shoulder, and, as +Kenmure and Laura were out rowing, the baby put me in her own place, +sat in her mother's chair, and ruled me with a rod of iron. How +wonderful was the instinct by which this little creature, who so seldom +heard one word of parental severity or parental fondness, yet knew so +thoroughly the language of both! Had I been the most depraved of +children, or the most angelic, I could not have been more sternly +excluded from the sugar-bowl, or more overwhelmed with compensating +kisses. + +Later on that day, while little Marian was taking the very profoundest +nap that ever a baby was blessed with, (she had a pretty way of dropping +asleep in unexpected corners of the house, like a kitten,) I somehow +strayed into a confidential talk with Janet about her mistress. I was +rather troubled to find that all her loyalty was for Laura, with nothing +left for Kenmure, whom indeed she seemed to regard as a sort of +objectionable altar, on which her darlings were being sacrificed. When +she came to particulars, certain stray fears of my own were confirmed. +It seemed that Laura's constitution was not fit, Janet averred, to bear +these irregular hours, early and late; and she plaintively dwelt on the +untasted oatmeal in the morning, the insufficient luncheon, the +precarious dinner, the excessive walking, the evening damps. There was +coming to be a look about her such as her mother had, who died at +thirty. As for Marian--but here the complaint suddenly stopped; it would +have required far stronger provocation to extract from the faithful soul +one word that might seem to reflect on Laura. + +Another year, and her forebodings had come true. It is needless to dwell +on the interval. Since then I have sometimes felt a regret almost +insatiable, in the thought that I should have been absent while all that +gracious beauty seemed fading and dissolving like a cloud; and yet at +other times it has appeared a relief to think that Laura would ever +remain to me in the fulness of her beauty, not a tint faded, not a +lineament changed. With all my efforts, I arrived only in time to +accompany Kenmure home at night, after the funeral service. We paused at +the door of the empty house,--how empty! I hesitated, but Kenmure +motioned to me to follow him in. + +We passed through the hall and went up stairs. Janet met us at the head +of the stairway, and asked me if I would go in to look at little Marian, +who was sleeping. I begged Kenmure to go also, but he refused, almost +savagely, and went on with heavy step into Laura's deserted room. + +Almost the moment I entered the child's chamber, she waked up suddenly, +looked at me, and said, "I know you, you are my friend." She never would +call me her cousin, I was always her friend. Then she sat up in bed, +with her eyes wide open, and said, as if stating a problem which had +been put by for my solution, "I should like to see my mother." + +How our hearts are rent by the unquestioning faith of children, when +they come to test the love which has so often worked what seemed to them +miracles,--and ask of it miracles indeed! I tried to explain to her the +continued existence of her beautiful mother, and she listened to it as +if her eyes drank in all that I could say, and more. But the apparent +distance between earth and heaven baffled her baby mind, as it so often +and so sadly baffles the thoughts of us elders. I wondered what precise +change seemed to her to have taken place. This all-fascinating Laura, +whom she adored, and who had yet never been to her what other women are +to their darlings,--did heaven seem to put her farther off, or bring her +more near? I could never know. The healthy child had no morbid +questionings; and as she had come into the world to be a sunbeam, she +must not fail of that mission. She was kicking about the bed, by this +time, in her nightgown, and holding her pink little toes in all sorts of +difficult attitudes, when she suddenly said, looking me full in the +face: "If my mother was so high up that she had her feet upon a star, +do you think that I could see her?" + +This astronomical apotheosis startled me for a moment, but I said +unhesitatingly, "Yes," feeling sure that the lustrous eyes that looked +in mine could certainly see as far as Dante's, when Beatrice was +transferred from his side to the highest realm of Paradise. I put my +head beside hers upon the pillow, and stayed till I thought she was +asleep. + +I then followed Kenmure into Laura's chamber. It was dusk, but the +after-sunset glow still bathed the room with imperfect light, and he lay +upon the bed, his hands clenched over his eyes. + +There was a deep bow-window where Laura used to sit and watch us, +sometimes, when we put off in the boat. Her aeolian harp was in the +casement, breaking its heart in music. A delicate handkerchief was +lodged between the cushions of the window-seat,--the very handkerchief +she used to wave, in summer days long gone. The white boats went sailing +beneath the evening light, children shouted and splashed in the water, a +song came from a yacht, a steam-whistle shrilled from the receding +steamer; but she for whom alone those little signs of life had been dear +and precious would henceforth be as invisible to our eyes as if time and +space had never held her; and the young moon and the evening star seemed +but empty things, unless they could pilot us to some world where the +splendor of her loveliness could match their own. + +Twilight faded, evening darkened, and still Kenmure lay motionless, +until his strong form grew in my moody fancy to be like some carving of +Michel Angelo, more than like a living man. And when he at last startled +me by speaking, it was with a voice so far off and so strange, it might +almost have come wandering down from the century when Michel Angelo +lived. + +"You are right," he said. "I have been living in a dream. It has all +vanished. I have kept no memorial of her presence, nothing to +perpetuate the most beautiful of lives." + +Before I could answer, the door came softly open, and there stood in the +doorway a small white figure, holding aloft a lighted taper of pure +alabaster. It was Marian in her little night-dress, with the loose, blue +wrapper trailing behind her, let go in the effort to hold carefully the +doll, Susan Halliday, robed also for the night. + +"May I come in?" said the child. + +Kenmure was motionless at first, then, looking over his shoulder, said +merely, "What?" + +"Janet said," continued Marian, in her clear and methodical way, "that +my mother was up in heaven, and would help God hear my prayers at any +rate; but if I pleased, I could come and say them by you." + +A shudder passed over Kenmure; then he turned away, and put his hands +over his eyes. She waited for no answer, but, putting down the +candlestick, in her wonted careful manner, upon a chair, she began to +climb upon the bed, lifting laboriously one little rosy foot, then +another, still dragging after her, with great effort, the doll. Nestling +at her father's breast, I saw her kneel. + +"Once my mother put her arm round me, when I said my prayers." She made +this remark, under her breath, less as a suggestion, it seemed, than as +the simple statement of a fact. + +Instantly I saw Kenmure's arm move, and grasp her with that strong and +gentle touch of his that I had so often noticed in the studio,--a touch +that seemed quiet as the approach of fate, and as resistless. I knew him +well enough to understand that iron adoption. + +He drew her toward him, her soft hair was on his breast, she looked +fearlessly in his eyes, and I could hear the little prayer proceeding, +yet in so low a whisper that I could not catch one word. She was +infinitely solemn at such times, the darling; and there was always +something in her low, clear tone, through all her prayings and +philosophizings, which was strangely like her mother's voice. Sometimes +she seemed to stop and ask a question, and at every answer I could see +her father's arm tighten, and the iron girdle grow more close. + +The moments passed, the voices grew lower yet, the doll slid to the +ground. Marian had drifted away upon a vaster ocean than that whose +music lulled her from without,--upon that sea whose waves are dreams. +The night was wearing on, the lights gleamed from the anchored vessels, +the bay rippled serenely against the low sea-wall, the breeze blew +gently in. Marian's baby breathing grew deeper and more tranquil; and as +all the sorrows of the weary earth might be imagined to exhale +themselves in spring through the breath of violets, so it seemed as if +it might be with Kenmure's burdened heart. By degrees the strong man's +deeper respirations mingled with those of the child, and their two +separate beings seemed merged and solved into identity, as they +slumbered, breast to breast, beneath the golden and quiet stars. I +passed by without awaking them; I knew that the artist had attained his +dream. + + + + +THE RELIGIOUS SIDE OF THE ITALIAN QUESTION. + + +I. + +I have of late frequently been asked by my English friends why it is +that I decline to return to my country, and to associate my own efforts +for the moral and political advancement of Italy with those of her +governing classes. "The amnesty has opened up a path for the _legal_ +dissemination of your ideas," they tell me. "By taking the place already +repeatedly offered you among the representatives of the people, you +would secure to those who hold the helm of the state the support of the +whole Republican party. Do you not, by throwing the weight of your name +and influence on the side of the malcontents, increase the difficulties +of the government, and prolong the fatal want of moral and political +unity, without which the mere material fact of union is barren, and +unproductive of benefit to the people?" + +The question is asked by serious men, who wish my country well, and is +therefore deserving of a serious answer. + +Before treating the personal matter, however, let me say that, since +1859, the Republican party has done precisely what my English friends +required it to do. The Italian Republicans have actually assisted and +upheld the government with an abnegation worthy of all +praise,--sacrificing even their right of Apostolate to the great idea of +Italian unity. Perceiving that the nation was determined to give +monarchy the benefit of a trial, they have--in that reverence for the +national will which is the first duty of Republicans--patiently awaited +its results, and endured every form of misgovernment rather than afford +a pretext to those in power for the non-fulfilment of their declared +intention of initiating a war to regain our own territory and true +frontier,--a war without which, as they well knew, the permanent +security and dignity of Italy were impossible, and which, had it been +conducted from a truly national point of view, would have wrought the +moral redemption of our people. + +The monarchy, however, which, as I pointed out in my article on "The +Republican Alliance," had had five years to prepare, and was in a +position to take the field with thirty-five thousand regular troops, +one hundred thousand mobilized National Guards, thirty thousand +volunteers under Garibaldi, and the whole of Italy ready to act as +reserve, and make any sacrifices in blood or money, abruptly broke off +the war after the unqualifiable disasters of Custozza and Lissa, at a +signal from France,--basely abandoning our true frontier, the heroic +Trentino,--and accepted Venice as an alms scornfully flung to us by the +man of the 2d of December. + +I may be told that a people of twenty-four millions who tamely submit to +dishonor deserve it. + +I admit it; but it must not be forgotten that our masses are uneducated, +and that it is the natural tendency of the uneducated to accept their +rulers as their guides, and to govern their own conduct by the example +of their _soi-disant_ superiors; and I assert that, if our people have +no consciousness of their great destiny, nor sense of their true power +and mission,--if, while twenty-four millions of Italians are at the +present day grouped around, I will not say the _conception_ of unity, +but the mere unstable _fact_ of union, the great soul of Italy still +lies prostrate in the tomb dug for her three centuries ago by the Papacy +and the Empire,--the cause is to be found in the immorality and +corruption of our rulers. + +The true life of a people must be sought in the ruling idea or +conception by which it is governed and directed. + +The true idea of a nation implies the consciousness of a common _aim_, +and the fraternal association and concentration of all the vital forces +of the country towards the realization of that aim. + +The national aim is indicated by the past tradition, and confirmed by +the present conscience, of the country. + +The national aim once ascertained, it becomes the basis of the sovereign +power, and the criterion of judgment with regard to the acts of the +citizens. + +Every act tending to promote the national aim is good; every act tending +to a departure from that aim is evil. + +The moral law is supreme. The religion of duty forms the link between +the nation and humanity; the source of its _right_, and the sign of its +place and value in humanity. + + * * * * * + +Such are the essential characteristics of what we term a nation at the +present day. Where these are wanting, there exists but an aggregate of +families, temporarily united for the purpose of diminishing the ills of +life, and loosely bound together by past habits or interests, which are +destined, sooner or later, to clash. All intellectual or economic +development among them,--unregulated by a great conception supreme over +every selfish interest,--instead of being equally diffused over the +various members of the national family, leads to the gradual formation +of educated or financial _castes_, but obtains for the nation itself +neither recognized function, position, dignity, nor glory among foreign +peoples. + +These things, which are true of all peoples, are still more markedly so +of a people emerging from a prolonged and deathlike stupor into new +life. Other nations earnestly watch its every step. If its advance is +illumined by the signs of a high mission, and its first manifestations +sanctified by the baptism of a great _principle_, other nations will +surround the new collective being with affection and hope, and be ready +to follow it upon the path assigned to it by God. If they discover in it +no signs of any noble inspiration, ruling moral conception, or potent +future, they will learn to despise it, and to regard its territory as a +new field for a predatory policy, and direct or indirect domination. + +Tradition has marked out and defined the characteristics of a high +mission more distinctly in Italy than elsewhere. We alone, among the +nations that have expired in the past, have twice arisen in resurrection +and given new life to Europe. The innate tendency of the Italian mind +always to harmonize _thought_ and _action_ confirms the prophecy of +history, and points out the _role_ of Italy in the world to be a work +of moral unification,--the utterance of the synthetic word of +civilization. + +Italy is a religion. + +And if we look only to the _immediate_ national aim, and the inevitable +consequences that must follow the complete constitution of Italy as a +nation, we see that to no people in Europe has been assigned a higher +office in the fulfilment of the educational design, to the evolution of +which Providence guides humanity from epoch to epoch. Our unity will be +of itself a potent _initiative_ in the world. The mere fact of our +existence as a nation will carry with it an important modification of +the external and internal life of Europe. + +Had we regained Venice through a war directed as justice and the +exigencies of the case required, instead of basely submitting to the +humiliation of receiving it from the hands of a foreign despot, we +should have dissolved two empires, and called into existence a +Slavo-Magyaro-Teutonic federation along the Danube, and a +Slavo-Hellenic-Rouman federation in the east of Europe. + +We shall not regain Rome without dissolving the Papacy, and proclaiming, +for the benefit of all humanity, that inviolability of conscience which +Protestantism achieved for a fraction of Europe only, and confined +within Biblical limits. + +Great ideas make great peoples, and the sense of the enormous power +which is an inseparable condition of the existence of our Italy as a +nation should have sufficed to make us great. That sense, however,--God +alone knows the grief with which I write it,--that sense with us is +wanting. + +And now a word as to the amnesty. + +Were it my nature to allow any personal considerations to interfere +where the welfare of my country is concerned, I might answer that none +who know me would expect me to give the lie to the whole of my past +life, and sully the few years left to me by accepting an offer of +_oblivion_ and _pardon_ for having loved Italy above all earthly things, +and preached and striven for her unity when all others regarded it as a +dream. + +But my purpose in the present writing is far other than self-defence; +and the sequel will show that, even were the sacrifice of the dignity of +my last years possible, it would be useless. + +My past, present, and future labors towards the moral and political +regeneration of my country have been, are, and will be governed by a +religious idea. + +The past, present, and future of our rulers have been, are, and will be +led astray by materialism. + +Now the religious question sums up and dominates every other. Political +questions are necessarily secondary and derivative. + +They who earnestly believe in the supremacy of the moral law as the sole +legitimate source of all authority--in a religion of duty, of which +politics should be the application--_cannot_, through any amount of +personal abnegation, act in concert with a government based upon the +worship of temporary and material interest. + +Our rulers have no great ruling conception,--no belief in the supremacy +of the moral law,--no just notion of life, nor of the human unity,--no +belief in a divinely appointed goal which it is the _duty_ of mankind to +reach through labor and sacrifice. They are materialists, and the +logical consequence of their want of all faith in God and his law are +the substitution of the idea of _interest_ for the idea of _duty_,--of a +paltry notion of _tactics_, for the fearless affirmation of the +truth,--of opportunity, for principle. + +It is for this that they protest against, without resisting, wrong,--for +this that they have abandoned the straight road to wander in tortuous +by-paths, fascinated by the thought of displaying _state-craft_, and +forgetting that it was through such paths we first descended into +slavery. It is for this that our government has reduced Italy to the +condition of a French prefecture, and that our parliamentary opposition +copies the wretched tactics of the _Left_ in the French Chamber, which +prepared the way, during the Restoration, for the present corruption, +degradation, and enslavement of their country. + +These things, I repeat, are _consequences_, not causes. We may change as +we will the individuals at the head of the government; the system itself +being based upon a false _principle_, the fatal idea will govern them. +They _cannot_ righteously direct the new life of the Italian people, and +redeem them from a profound unconscious immorality of ancient date. + +The present duty of the democratic party in Italy, then,--since they +cannot serve God and Mammon,--is to educate the people; and, remembering +that the basis of all education is truth, to endeavor to prove to them +that the actual political impotence and corruption of Italy are derived +from two causes which may be summed up in one,--we have no religion, and +we have set up a negation in its place. + + +II. + +On the one side we have--as our only form and semblance of religion--the +Papacy. + +I remember to have written, more than thirty years ago, when none other +dared openly to venture on the problem,--when the boldest contented +themselves with whispering of reforms in Church discipline, and those +writers who, like Gioberti, set themselves up as philosophers, thought +proper, as a matter of tactics, to caress the Utopia of an Italian +primacy, intrusted to I know not what impossible revival of +Catholicism,--I remember to have written then that both the Papacy and +Catholicism were things extinct, and that their death was a consequence +of _quite another death_. + +I spoke of the dogma which was the foundation of both. + +Years have confirmed what I then declared. The Papacy is now a corpse +beyond all power of galvanization. It is the lying mockery of a +religion,--a source of perennial corruption and immorality among the +nations, and most fatally such to our own, upon whose very soul weighs +the incubus and example of that lie. But at the present day we either +know or ought to know the cause of this. + +All contact with the Papacy is contact with death, carrying the taint of +its corruption over rising Italy, and educating her masses in +falsehood,--not because cardinals, bishops, and monks traded in +indulgences three centuries ago,--not because this or that Pope +trafficked in cowardly concessions to princes, or in the matrimony of +his own bastards with the bastards of dukes, petty tyrants, or kings, in +order to obtain some patch of territory or temporal dominion,--not +because they have governed and persecuted men according to their +arbitrary will; but because they _cannot_ do other, even if they would. + +These evils and these sins are not _causes_, but _consequences_. + +Even admitting the impossible hypothesis that the guilty individuals +should be converted;--that the Jansenists, or other Reformers, should +recall the misguided Popes to the charity and humility of their ancient +way of life,--they could only cause the Papacy to die with greater +dignity;--it can never again be what once it was, the ruler and director +of the conscience of the peoples. + +The mission of the Papacy--a great and holy mission, whatever the +fanatics of rebellion at the present day, falsifying history and +calumniating the soul and mind of humanity in the past, may say to the +contrary--is fulfilled. It was fulfilled six centuries ago; and no power +of genius, no miracle of will, can avail to revive it. Innocent III. was +the last true Pope. He was the last who endeavored to make the supremacy +of the moral law of the epoch over the brute force of the temporal +governments--of the spirit over matter, of God over Caesar--an organic +social _fact_. + +And such was in truth the mission of the Papacy,--the secret of its +power, and of the willing adherence and submission yielded to it by +humanity for eight hundred years. That mission was incarnated in one of +the greatest of Italians in genius, virtue, and iron strength of +will,--Gregory VII.,--and yet he failed to prolong it. One hundred and +fifty years afterwards, the gigantic attempt had become but the dim +record of a past never to return. With the successors of Innocent III. +began the decline of the Papacy; it ceased to infuse life into humanity. +A hundred years later, and the Church had become scandalously corrupt in +the higher spheres of its hierarchy, persecuting and superstitious in +the lower. A hundred years later it was the ally, and in one hundred +more the servant of Caesar, and had lost one half of Europe. + +From that time forward it has unceasingly declined, until it has sunk to +the thing we now behold it;--disinherited of all power of inspiration +over civilization; the impotent negation of all movement, of all +liberty, of all development of science or life; destitute of all sense +of duty, power of sacrifice, or faith in its own destiny; held up by +foreign bayonets; trembling before the face of the peoples, and forsaken +by humanity, which is seeking the path of progress elsewhere. + +The Papacy has lost all moral basis, aim, sanction, and source of action +at the present day. Its source of action in the past was derived from a +conception of heaven since changed,--from a notion of life since proved +imperfect,--from a conception of the moral law inferior to that of the +new epoch in course of initiation,--from a solution of the eternal +problem of the relation between man and God since rejected by the human +heart, intellect, conscience, and tradition. + +The dogma itself which the Church once represented is exhausted and +consumed. It no longer inspires faith, no longer has power to unite or +direct the human race. + +The time of a new dogma is approaching, which will re-link earth with +heaven in a vaster synthesis, fruitful of new and harmonious life. + +It is for this that the Papacy expires. And it is our duty to declare +this, without hypocritical reticence, or formulae of speech, which, +feigning to attack and venerate at one and the same time, do but parcel +out, not solve the problem; because the future cannot be fully revealed +until the past is entombed, and by weakly prolonging the delay we run +the risk of introducing gangrene into the wound. + +The formula of life and of the law of life from which the Papacy derived +its existence and its mission was that of the _fall_ of man and his +redemption. The logical and inevitable consequences of this formula +were:-- + +The doctrine of the necessity of _mediation_ between man and God; + +The belief in a _direct_, _immediate_, and _immutable_ revelation, and +hence in a privileged class,--naturally destined to centralize in one +individual,--the office of which was to preserve that revelation +inviolate; + +The inefficacy of man's own efforts to achieve his own redemption, and +the consequent substitution of unlimited _faith_ in the _Mediator_, for +works,--hence _grace_ and _predestination_ more or less explicitly +substituted for _free-will_; + +The separation of the human race into the _elect_ and the _non-elect_; + +The _salvation_ of the one, and the eternal _damnation_ of the other; +and, above all, + +The duality between earth and heaven, between the _ideal_ and the +_real_, between the _aim_ set before man and a world condemned to +anathema by the _fall_, and incapable, through the imperfection of its +finite elements, of affording him the means of realizing that aim. + +In fact, the religious synthesis which succeeded Polytheism did not +contemplate, nor did the historical succession of the epochs allow it to +contemplate, any conception of life embracing more than the +_individual_; it offered the individual a means of salvation _in despite +of_ the egotism, tyranny, and corruption by which he is surrounded on +earth, and which no individual effort could hope to overcome; it came to +declare to him, _The world is adverse to thee; renounce the world and +put thy faith in Christ; this will lead thee to heaven_. + +The new formula of life and its law--unknown at that day, but revealed +to us in our own day by our knowledge of the tradition of humanity, +confirmed by the voice of individual conscience, by the intuition of +genius and the grand results of scientific research--may be summed up in +the single word _Progress_,[D] which we now know to be, by Divine +decree, the inherent tendency of human nature,--whether manifested in +the individual or the collective being,--and destined, more or less +speedily, but inevitably, to be evolved in time and space. + +The logical consequences of the new formula are:-- + +The substitution of the idea of a _law_ for the idea of a +_Mediator_;--the idea of a _continuous_ educational revelation for that +of an _immediate_ arbitrary revelation; + +The apostolate of genius and virtue, and of the great collective +intuitions of the peoples, when roused to enthusiastic action in the +service of a truth, substituted for the _privilege_ of a priestly +_class_; + +The sanctity of tradition, as the depository of the progress already +achieved; and the sanctity of individual conscience, alike the pledge +and the means of all future progress; + +_Works_, sanctified by faith, substituted for mere faith alone, as the +criterion of merit and means of salvation. + +The new formula of life cancels the dogma of _grace_, which is the +negation of that capacity of perfectibility granted to _all_ men; as +well as that of _predestination_, which is the negation of _free-will_, +and that of eternity of punishment, which is the negation of the divine +element existing in every human soul. + +The new formula substitutes the conception of the slow, continuous +progress of the human _Ego_ throughout an indefinite series of +existences, for the idea of an impossible perfection to be achieved in +the course of one brief existence; it presents an absolutely, new view +of the mission of man upon earth, and puts an end to the antagonism +between earth and heaven, by teaching us that this world is an abode +given to man _wherein_ he is bound to merit salvation, by his own works, +and hence enforces the necessity of endeavoring, by thought, by action, +and by sacrifice, to transform the world,--the duty of realizing our +ideal here below, as far as in us lies, for the benefit of future +generations, and of reducing to an earthly _fact_ as much as may be of +the _kingdom_--the conception--of God. + +The religious synthesis which is slowly but infallibly taking the place +of the synthesis of the past comprehends a new term,--the continuous +_collective_ life of humanity; and this alone is sufficient to change +the _aim_, the _method_, and the moral _law_ of our existence. + +All links with heaven broken, and useless to the earth, which is ready +to hail the proclamation of a new dogma, the Papacy has no longer any +_raison d'etre_. Once useful and holy, it is now a lie, a source only of +corruption and immorality. + +Once useful and holy, I say, because, had it not been for the unity of +moral life in which we were held for more than eight centuries by the +Papacy, we should not now have been prepared to realize the new unity to +come; had it not been for the dogma of human equality in heaven, we +should not now have been prepared to proclaim the dogma of human +equality on earth. And, I declare it a lie and a source of immorality at +the present day, because every great institution becomes such if it +seeks to perpetuate its authority after its mission is fulfilled. The +substitution of the enslavement for the slaughter of the conquered foe +was a step towards progress, as was the substitution of servitude for +slavery. The formation of the _Bourgeoise_ class was a progress from +servitude. But he who at the present day should attempt to recede +towards slavery and servitude, and presumptuously endeavor to perpetuate +the exclusion of the proletarian from the rights and benefits of the +social organization, would prove himself the enemy of all civilization, +past and future, and a teacher of immorality. + +It is therefore the duty of all those amongst us who have it at heart to +win _the city of the future_ and the triumph of truth, to make war, not +only upon the temporal power,--who should dare deny that to the admitted +representative of God on earth?--but upon the Papacy itself. It is +therefore our duty to go back to the dogma upon which the institution is +founded, and to show that that dogma has become insufficient and unequal +to the moral wants, aspirations, and dawning faith of humanity. + +They who at the present day attack the _Prince_ of Rome, and yet profess +to venerate the _Pope_, and to be sincere Catholics, are either guilty +of flagrant contradiction, or are hypocrites. + +They who profess to reduce the problem to the realization of _a free +Church in a free State_ are either influenced by a fatal timidity, or +destitute of every spark of moral conviction. + +The separation of Church and State is good as a weapon of defence +against the corruptions of a Church no longer worthy the name. It +is--like all the programmes of mere liberty--an implicit declaration +that the institution against which we are compelled to invoke either our +individual or collective rights is corrupt, and destined to perish. + +Individual or collective rights may be justly invoked against the +authority of a religious institution as a remedial measure in a period +of transition; just as it may occasionally be necessary to isolate a +special locality for a given time, in order to protect others from +infection. But the cause must be explicitly declared. By declaring it, +you educate the country to look beyond the temporary measure,--to look +forward to a return to a normal state of things, and to study the +positive organic _principle_ destined to govern that normal state. By +keeping silence, you accustom the mass to disjoin the _moral_ from the +political, theory from practice, the ideal from the real, heaven from +earth. + +When once all belief in the past synthesis shall be extinct, and faith +in the new synthesis established, the State itself will be elected into +a Church; it will incarnate in itself a religious principle, and become +the representative of the moral law in the various manifestations of +life. + +So long as it is separate from the State, the Church will always +conspire to reconquer power over it in the interest of the past dogma. +If separated from all collective and avowed faith by a negative policy, +such as that adopted by the atheistic and indifferent French Parliament, +the State will fall a prey to the anarchical doctrine of the sovereignty +of the individual, and the worship of interest; it will sink into +egotism and the adoration of the _accomplished fact_, and hence, +inevitably, into despotism, as a remedy for the evils of anarchy. + +For an example of this among modern nations, we have only to look at +France. + + +III. + +On the other hand, in opposition to the Papacy, but itself a source of +no less corruption, stands _materialism_. + +Materialism, the philosophy of all expiring epochs and peoples in decay, +is, historically speaking, an old phenomenon, inseparable from the death +of a religious dogma. It is the reaction of those superficial intellects +which, incapable of taking a comprehensive view of the life of humanity, +and tracing and deducing its essential characteristics from tradition, +deny the religious ideal itself, instead of simply affirming the death +of one of its incarnations. + +Luther compared the human mind to a drunken peasant, who, falling from +one side of his horse, and set straight on his seat by one desirous of +helping him, instantly falls again on the other side. The simile--if +limited to periods of transition--is most just. The youth of Italy, +suddenly emancipated from the servile education of more than three +centuries, and intoxicated with their moral liberty, find themselves in +the presence of a Church destitute of all mission, virtue, love for the +people, or adoration of truth or progress,--destitute even of faith in +itself. They see that the existing dogma is in flagrant contradiction of +the ruling idea that governs all the aspirations of the epoch, and that +its conception of divinity is inferior to that revealed by science, +human conscience, philosophy, and the improved conception of life +acquired by the study of the tradition of humanity, unknown to man +previously to the discovery of his Eastern origin. Therefore, in +order--as they believe--to establish their moral freedom radically and +forever, they reject alike all idea of a church, a dogma, and a God. + +Philosophically speaking, the unreflecting exaggerations of men who have +just risen up in rebellion do not portend any serious damage to human +progress. These errors are a mere repetition of what has always taken +place at the decay and death of every dogma, and will--as they always +have done--sooner or later wear away. The day will come when our Italian +youth will discover that, just as reasonably as they, not content with +denying the Christian dogma, proceed to deny the existence of a God, and +the religious life of humanity, their ancestors might have proceeded, +from their denial and rejection of the feudal system, to the rejection +of every form of social organization, or have declared art extinct +forever during the transition period when the Greek form of art had +ceased to correspond to those aspirations of the human mind which +prepared the way for the cathedrals of the Middle Ages and the Christian +school of art. + +Art, society, religion,--all these are faculties inseparable from human +life itself, progressive as life itself, and eternal as life itself. +Every epoch of humanity has had and will have its own social, artistic, +and religious _expression_. In every epoch man will ask of tradition and +of conscience whence he came, and to what goal he is bound; he will ask +through what paths that goal is to be reached, and seek to solve the +problem suggested by the existence within him of a conception of the +Infinite, and of an ideal impossible of realization in the finite +conditions of his earthly existence. He will, from time to time, adopt a +different solution, in proportion as the horizon of tradition is +progressively enlarged, and the human conscience enlightened; but +assuredly it will never be a mere negation. + +Philosophically speaking, materialism is based upon a singular but +constant confusion of two things radically distinct;--life, and its +successive modes of manifestation; the _Ego_, and the organs by which it +is revealed in a visible form to the external world, the non-_Ego_. The +men who, having succeeded in analyzing the _instruments_ by means of +which life is made manifest in a series of successive finite phenomena, +imagine that they have acquired a proof of the _materiality_ of life +itself, resemble the poor fool, who, having chemically analyzed the ink +with which a poem was written, imagines he has penetrated the secret of +the genius that composed it. + +Life,--thought,--the initiative power of motion,--the conception of the +Infinite, of the Eternal, of God, which is inborn in the human +mind,--the aspiration towards an ideal impossible of realization in the +brief stage of our earthly existence,--the instinct of free will,--all +that constitutes the mysterious link within us to a world beyond the +visible,--defy all analysis by a philosophy exclusively experimental, +and impotent to overpass the sphere of the secondary laws of being. + +If materialists choose to reject the teachings of tradition, the voice +of human conscience and intuition, to limit themselves to the mechanism +of analytical observation, and substitute their narrow, undirected +physiology for biology and psychology,--if then, finding themselves +unable by that imperfect method to comprehend the primary laws and +origin of things, they childishly deny the existence of such laws, and +declare all humanity before their time to have been deluded and +incapable,--so be it. Nor should I, had Italy been a nation for half a +century, have regarded their doctrines as fraught with any real danger. +Humanity will not abandon its appointed path for them; and to hear +them--in an age in which the discoveries of all great thinkers combine +to demonstrate the existence of an intelligent preordained law of unity +and progress--spouting materialism in the name of science, because they +have skimmed a volume of Vogt, or attended a lecture by Moleschott, +might rather move one to amusement than anger. + +But Italy is not a nation; she is only in the way to become one. And the +present is therefore a moment of grave importance; for, even as the +first examples set before infancy, so the first lessons taught to a +people emerging from a long past of error and corruption, and hesitating +as to the choice of its future, may be of serious import. The doctrines +of federalism, which, if preached in France at the present day, would be +but an innocent Utopia, threatened the dissolution of the country during +the first years of the Revolution. They laid bare the path for foreign +conquest, and roused the _Mountain_ to bloody and terrible means of +repression. + +Such for us are the wretched doctrines of which I speak. Fate has set +before us a great and holy mission, which, if we fail to accomplish it +now, may be postponed for half a century. Every delay, every error, may +be fatal. And the people through whom we have to work are uneducated, +liable to accept any error which wears a semblance of war against the +past, and in danger, from their long habit of slavery, of relapsing +into egotism. + +Now the tendency of the doctrines of materialism is to lead the mass to +egotism through the path of interest. Therefore it grieves me to hear +them preached by many worthy but inconsiderate young men amongst us; and +I conjure them, by all they hold most sacred, to meditate deeply the +moral consequences of the doctrines they preach, and especially to study +their effect in the case of a neighboring nation, which carried negation +to the extreme during the past century, and which we behold at the +present day utterly corrupted by the worship of temporary and material +interest, disinherited of all noble activity, and sunk in the +degradation and infamy of slavery. + +Every error is a crime in those whose duty it is to watch over the +cradle of a nation. + +Either we must admit the idea of a God,--of the moral law, which is an +emanation from him,--and the idea of human duty, freely accepted by +mankind, as the practical consequence of that law,--or we must admit the +idea of a ruling force of things, and its practical consequence, the +worship of individual force or success, the omnipotence of _fact_. From +this dilemma there is no escape. + +Either we must accept the sovereignty of an _aim_ prescribed by +conscience, in which all the individuals composing a nation are bound to +unite, and the pursuit of which constitutes the _nationality_ of a given +people among the many of which humanity is composed,--an aim recognized +by them all, and superior to them all, and therefore _religious_; or we +must accept the sovereignty of the _right_, arbitrarily defined, of each +nation, and its practical consequences,--the pursuit by each individual +of his own interest and his own _well-being_, the satisfaction of his +own desires,--and the impossibility of any sovereign _duty_, to which +all the citizens, from those who govern down to the humblest of the +governed, owe obedience and sacrifice. + +Which of these doctrines will be most potent to lead our nation to high +things? Let us not forget that, although the educated, intellectual, and +virtuous may be willing to admit that the _well-being_ of the individual +should be founded--even at the cost of sacrifice--upon the _well-being_ +of the many, the majority will, as they always have done, understand +their _well-being_ to mean their positive satisfaction or enjoyment; +they will reject the notion of sacrifice as painful, and endeavor to +realize their own happiness, even to the injury of others. They will +seek it one day from liberty, the next from the deceitful promises of a +despot; but the practical result of encouraging them to strive for the +realization of their own happiness as a right, will inevitably be to +lead them to the mere gratification of their own individual egotism. + +If you reject all Supreme law, all Providential guidance, all aim, all +obligation imposed by the belief in a mission towards humanity, you have +no right to prescribe _your_ conception of _well-being_ to others, as +worthier or better. You have no certain basis, no principle upon which +to found a system of education; you have nothing left but force, if you +are strong enough to impose it. Such was the method adopted by the +French Revolutionists, and they, in their turn, succumbed to the force +of others, without knowing in the name of what to protest. And you would +have to do the same. Without God, you must either accept anarchy as the +normal condition of things,--and this is impossible,--or you must seek +your authority in the _force_ of this or that individual, and thus open +the way to despotism and tyranny. + +But what then becomes of the idea of progress?--what of the conception +we have lately gained from historic science of the gradual but +infallible education of humanity,--of the link of _solidary_ ascending +life which unites succeeding generations,--of the duty of sacrificing, +if need be, the present generation to the elevation and morality of the +generations of the future,--of the pre-eminence of the fatherland over +individuals, and the certainty that their devotion and martyrdom will, +in the fulness of time, advance the honor, greatness, or virtue of their +nation? + +There are _materialists_, illogical and carried away by the impulses of +a heart superior to their doctrines, who do both feel and act upon this +worship of the ideal; but _materialism_ denies it. Materialism, as a +doctrine, only recognizes in the universe a finite and determinate +quantity of matter, gifted with a definite number of properties, and +susceptible of modification, but not of progress; in which certain +productive forces act by the fortuitous agglomeration of circumstances +not to be predicated or foreseen; or through the necessary succession of +causes and effects,--of events inevitable and independent of all human +action. + +Materialism admits neither the intervention of any creative +intelligence, Divine initiative, nor human free-will; by denying the +law-giving Intellect, it denies all intelligent Providential law; and +the philosophy of the squirrel in its cage, which men term _Pantheism_ +at the present day, by confounding the _subject_ and the _object_ in +one, cancels alike the _Ego_ and non-_Ego_, good and evil, God and man, +and, consequently, all individual mission or free-will. The wretched +doctrine, recognizing no higher historic formula than the necessary +alternation of vicissitudes, condemns humanity to tread eternally the +same circle, being incapable of comprehending the conception of the +spiral path of indefinite progress upon which humanity traces its +gradual ascent towards an ideal beyond. + +Strange contradiction! Men whose aim it is to combat the practice of +egotism instilled into the Italian people by tyranny, to inspire them +with a sacred devotion to the fatherland, and make of them a great +nation, the artificer of the progress of humanity, present as the first +intellectual food of this people now awakening to new life, whose whole +strength lies in their good instincts and virginity of intellect, a +theory the ultimate consequences of which are to establish egotism upon +a basis of right! + +They call upon their people worthily to carry on the grand traditions of +their past, when all around them--popes, princes, military leaders, +_literati_, and the servile herd--have either insolently trampled +liberty under foot, or deserted its cause in cowardly indifference; and +they preach to them a doctrine which deprives them of every pledge of +future progress, every stimulus to affection, every noble aspiration +towards sacrifice,--they take from them the faith that inspires +confidence in victory, and renders even the defeat of to-day fruitful of +triumph on the morrow. The same men who urge upon them the duty of +shedding their blood for an idea begin by declaring to them: _There is +no hope of any future for you. Faith in immortality--the lesson +transmitted to you by all past humanity--is a falsehood; a breath of +air, or trifling want of equilibrium in the animal functions, destroys +you wholly and forever. There is even no certainty that the results of +your labors will endure; there is no Providential law or design, +consequently no possible theory of the future; you are but building up +to-day what any unforeseen fact, blind force, or fortuitous circumstance +may overthrow to-morrow._ + +They teach these brothers of theirs, whom they desire to elevate and +ennoble, that they are but dust,--a necessary, unconscious secretion of +I know not what material substance; that the _thought_ of a Kepler or +Dante is _dust_, or rather _phosphorus_; that genius, from Prometheus to +Jesus, brought down no divine spark from heaven; that the _moral law_, +free-will, merit, and the consequent progress of the _Ego_, are +illusions; that events are successively our masters,--inexorable, +irresponsible, and insuperable to human will. + +And they see not that they thus confirm that servile submission to the +_accomplished fact_, that doctrine of _opportunity_, that bastard +Machiavellism, that worship of temporary interests, and that +indifference to every great idea, which find expression in our country +at the present day in the betrayal of national duty by our higher +classes, and in the stupid resignation of our masses. + + +IV. + +I invoke the rising--and I should die consoled, even in exile, could I +see the first signs of its advent, but this I dare not hope--I invoke +the rising of a truly Italian school;--a school which, comprehending the +causes of the downfall of the Papacy, and the impotence of the merely +negative doctrine which our Italian youth have borrowed from superficial +French materialists and the German copyists, should elevate itself above +both, and come forward to announce the approaching and inevitable +religious transformation which will put an end to the existing divorce +between thought and action, and to the crisis of egotism and immorality +through which Europe is passing. + +I invoke the rising of a school destined to prepare the way for the +_initiative_ of Italy;--which shall, on the one side, undertake the +examination of the dogma upon which Catholicism was founded, and prove +it to be worn out, exhausted, and in contradiction to our new conception +of life and its laws; and, on the other hand, the refutation of +materialism under whatsoever form it may present itself, and prove that +it also is in contradiction of that new conception,--that it is a +stupid, fatal negation of all moral law, of human free-will, of our +every sacred hope, and of the calm and constant virtue of sacrifice. + +I invoke a school which shall philosophically develop all the +consequences, the germ of which--neglected or ignored by superficial +intellects--is contained in the word Progress considered as a new _term_ +in the great historical synthesis, the expression of the ascending +advance of humanity from epoch to epoch, from religion to religion, +towards a vaster conception of its own _aim_ and its own law. + +I invoke the rising of a school destined to demonstrate to the youth of +Italy that _rationalism_ is but an _instrument_,--the instrument adopted +in all periods of transition by the human intellect to aid its progress +from a worn-out form of religion to one new and superior,--and science +only an accumulation of materials to be arranged and organized in +fruitful synthesis by a new moral conception;--a school that will recall +philosophy from this puerile confusion of the _means_ with the _aim_, to +bring it back to its sole true basis, the knowledge of life and +comprehension of its law. + +I invoke a school which will seek the truth of the epoch, not in mere +analysis,--always barren and certain to mislead, if undirected by a +ruling principle,--but in an earnest study of universal tradition, which +is the manifestation of the collective life of humanity; and of +conscience, which is the manifestation of the life of the individual. + +I invoke a school which shall redeem from the neglect cast upon it by +theories deduced from one of our human faculties alone that _intuition_ +which is the concentration of all the faculties upon a given subject;--a +school which, even while declaring it exhausted, will respect the +_past_, without which the _future_ would be impossible,--which will +protest against those intellectual barbarians for whom every religion is +falsehood, every form of civilization now extinct a folly, every great +pope, king, or warrior now in the course of things surpassed a criminal +or a hypocrite, and revoke the condemnation, thus uttered by presumption +in the present, of the past labors and intellect of entire humanity;--a +school which may condemn, but will not defame,--will judge, but never, +through frenzy of rebellion, falsify history;--a school which will +declare the death that _is_, without denying the life that _was_,--which +will call upon Italy to emancipate herself for the achievement of new +glories, but strip not a single leaf from her wreath of glories past. + +Such a school would regain for Italy her European initiative, her +primacy. + +Italy--as I have said--is a religion. + +Some have affirmed this of France. They were mistaken. France--if we +except the single moment when the Revolution and Napoleon summed up the +achievements of the epoch of _individuality_--has never had any external +mission, other than, occasionally, as an arm of the Church, the +_instrument_ of an idea emanating from Papal Rome. + +But the mission of Italy in the world was at all times religious, and +the essential character of Italian genius was at all times religious. + +The essence of every religion lies in a power, unknown to mere science, +of compelling man to reduce thought to action, and harmonize his +practical life with his moral conception. The genius of our nation, +whenever it has been spontaneously revealed, and exercised independently +of all foreign inspiration, has always evinced the religious character, +the unifying power to which I allude. Every conception of the Italian +mind sought its incarnation in action,--strove to assume a form in the +political sphere. The ideal and the real, elsewhere divided, have always +tended to be united in our land. Sabines and Etruscans alike derived +their civil organization and way of life from their conception of +Heaven. The Pythagoreans founded their philosophy, religious +associations, and political institutions at one and the same time. The +source of the vitality and power of Rome lay in a religious sense of a +collective mission, of an _aim_ to be achieved, in the contemplation of +which the individual was submerged. Our democratic republics were all +religious. Our early philosophical thinkers were all tormented by the +idea of translating their ideal conceptions into practical rules of +government. + +And as to our external mission. + +We alone have twice given _moral_ unity to Europe, to the known world. +The voice that issued from Rome in the past was addressed to and +reverenced by humanity,--"Urbs Orbi." + +Italy is a religion. And when, in my earliest years, I believed that +the _initiative_ of the third life of Europe would spring from the +heart, the action, the enthusiasm and sacrifice of our people, I heard +within me the grand voice of Rome sounding once again, hailed and +accepted with loving reverence by the peoples, and telling of moral +unity and fraternity in a faith common to all humanity. It was not the +unity of the past,--which, though sacred and conducive to civilization +for many centuries, did but emancipate _individual_ man, and reveal to +him an ideal of liberty and equality only to be realized in Heaven: it +was a new unity, emancipating _collective_ humanity, and revealing the +formula of Association, through which liberty and equality are destined +to be realized here on earth; sanctifying the earth and rendering it +what God wills it should be,--a stage upon the path of perfection, a +means given to man wherewith to deserve a higher and nobler existence +hereafter. + +And I saw Rome, in the name of God and Republican Italy, substituting a +declaration of PRINCIPLES for the barren declaration of +rights,--principles the logical consequences of the parent idea, +PROGRESS,--and revealing to the nations a common aim, and the basis of a +new religion. And I saw Europe, weary of scepticism, egotism, and moral +anarchy, receive the new faith with acclamations. I saw a new pact +founded upon that faith,--a pact of united action in the work of human +perfectibility, involving none of the evils or dangers of the former +pact, because among the first consequences of a faith founded upon the +dogma of progress would be the justification of _heresy_, as either a +promise or endeavor after progress in the future. + +The vision which brightened my first dream of country has vanished, so +far as concerns my own life. Even if that vision be ever fulfilled,--as +I believe it will be,--I shall be in the tomb. May the young, as yet +uncorrupted by scepticism, prepare the way for its realization; and may +they, in the name of our national tradition and the future, unceasingly +protest against all who seek to immobilize human life in the name of a +dogma extinct, or to degrade it by diverting it from the eternal worship +of the Ideal. + +The religious question is pre-eminent over every other at the present +day, and the moral question is indissolubly linked with it. We are bound +either to solve these, or renounce all idea of an Italian mission in the +world. + + JOSEPH MAZZINI. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote D: This sacred word, which sums up the dogma of the future, +has been uttered by every school, but misunderstood by the majority. +Materialists have usurped the use of it, to express man's +ever-increasing power over the productive forces of the earth; and men +of science, to indicate that accumulation of _facts_ discovered and +submitted to analysis which has led us to a better knowledge of +secondary causes. Few understand it as the expression of a providential +conception or design, inseparable from our human life and foundation of +our moral law.] + + + + +REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. + + +_Miss Ravenel's Conversion from Secession to Loyalty._ By J. W. DE +FORREST. New York: Harper and Brothers. + +The light, strong way in which our author goes forward in this story +from the first, and does not leave difficulty to his readers, is +pleasing to those accustomed to find an American novel a good deal like +the now extinct American stage-coach whose passengers not only walked +over bad pieces of road, but carried fence-rails on their shoulders to +pry the vehicle out of the sloughs and miry places. It was partly the +fault of the imperfect roads, no doubt, and it may be that our social +ways have only just now settled into such a state as makes smooth going +for the novelist; nevertheless, the old stage-coach was hard to travel +in, and what with drafts upon one's good nature for assistance, it must +be confessed that our novelists have been rather trying to their +readers. It is well enough with us all while the road is good,--a study +of individual character, a bit of landscape, a stretch of well-worn +plot, gentle slopes of incident; but somewhere on the way the passengers +are pretty sure to be asked to step out,--the ladies to walk on ahead, +and the gentlemen to fetch fence-rails. + +Our author imagines a Southern loyalist and his daughter sojourning in +New Boston, Barataria, during the first months of the war. Dr. Ravenel +has escaped from New Orleans just before the Rebellion began, and has +brought away with him the most sarcastic and humorous contempt and +abhorrence of his late fellow-citizens, while his daughter, an ardent +and charming little blonde Rebel, remembers Louisiana with longing and +blind admiration. The Doctor, born in South Carolina, and living all his +days among slaveholders and slavery, has not learned to love either; but +Lillie differs from him so widely as to scream with joy when she hears +of Bull Run. Naturally she cannot fall in love with Mr. Colburne, the +young New Boston lawyer, who goes into the war conscientiously for his +country's sake, and resolved for his own to make himself worthy and +lovable in Lillie's blue eyes by destroying and desolating all that she +holds dear. It requires her marriage with Colonel Carter--a Virginia +gentleman, a good-natured drunkard and _roue_ and soldier of fortune on +our side--to make her see Colburne's worth, as it requires some +comparative study of New Orleans and New Boston, on her return to her +own city, to make her love the North. Bereft of her husband by his own +wicked weakness, and then widowed, she can at last wisely love and marry +Colburne; and, cured of Secession by experiencing on her father's +account the treatment received by Unionists in New Orleans, her +conversion to loyalty is a question of time duly settled before the +story ends. + +We sketch the plot without compunction, for these people of Mr. De +Forrest's are so unlike characters in novels as to be like people in +life, and none will wish the less to see them because he knows the +outline of their history. Not only is the plot good and very well +managed, but there is scarcely a feebly painted character or scene in +the book. As to the style, it is so praiseworthy that we will not +specifically censure occasional defects,--for the most part, slight +turgidities notable chiefly from their contrast to the prevailing +simplicity of the narrative. + +Our war has not only left us the burden of a tremendous national debt, +but has laid upon our literature a charge under which it has hitherto +staggered very lamely. Every author who deals in fiction feels it to be +his duty to contribute towards the payment of the accumulated interest +in the events of the war, by relating his work to them; and the heroes +of young-lady writers in the magazines have been everywhere fighting the +late campaigns over again, as young ladies would have fought them. We do +not say that this is not well, but we suspect that Mr. De Forrest is the +first to treat the war really and artistically. His campaigns do not try +the reader's constitution, his battles are not bores. His soldiers are +the soldiers we actually know,--the green wood of the volunteers, the +warped stuff of men torn from civilization and cast suddenly into the +barbarism of camps, the hard, dry, tough, true fibre of the veterans +that came out of the struggle. There could hardly be a better type of +the conscientious and patriotic soldier than Captain Colburne; and if +Colonel Carter must not stand as type of the officers of the old army, +he mast be acknowledged as true to the semi-civilization of the South. +On the whole he is more entertaining than Colburne, as immoral people +are apt to be to those who suffer nothing from them. "His contrasts of +slanginess and gentility, his mingled audacity and _insouciance_ of +character, and all the picturesque ins and outs of his moral +architecture, so different from the severe plainness of the spiritual +temples common in New Boston," do take the eye of peace-bred +Northerners, though never their sympathy. Throughout, we admire, as the +author intends, Carter's thorough and enthusiastic soldiership, and we +perceive the ruins of a generous nature in his aristocratic Virginian +pride, his Virginian profusion, his imperfect Virginian sense of honor. +When he comes to be shot, fighting bravely at the head of his column, +after having swindled his government, and half unwillingly done his +worst to break his wife's heart, we feel that our side has lost a good +soldier, but that the world is on the whole something better for our +loss. The reader must go to the novel itself for a perfect conception of +this character, and preferably to those dialogues in which Colonel +Carter so freely takes part; for in his development of Carter, at least, +Mr. De Forrest is mainly dramatic. Indeed, all the talk in the book is +free and natural, and, even without the hard swearing which +distinguishes the speech of some, it would be difficult to mistake one +speaker for another, as often happens in novels. + +The character of Dr. Ravenel, though so simple, is treated in a manner +invariably delightful and engaging. His native purity, amiability, and +generosity, which a life-long contact with slavery could not taint; his +cordial scorn of Southern ideas; his fine and flawless instinct of +honor; his warm-hearted courtesy and gentleness, and his gayety and wit; +his love of his daughter and of mineralogy; his courage, modesty, and +humanity,--these are the traits which recur in the differing situations +with constant pleasure to the reader. + +Miss Lillie Ravenel is as charming as her adored papa, and is never less +nor more than a bright, lovable, good, constant, inconsequent woman. It +is to her that the book owes its few scenes of tenderness and sentiment; +but she is by no means the most prominent character in the novel, as the +infelicitous title would imply, and she serves chiefly to bring into +stronger relief the traits of Colonel Carter and Doctor Ravenel. The +author seems not even to make so much study of her as of Mrs. Larue, a +lady whose peculiar character is skilfully drawn, and who will be quite +probable and explicable to any who have studied the traits of the noble +Latin race, and a little puzzling to those acquainted only with people +of Northern civilization. Yet in Mrs. Larue the author comes near making +his failure. There is a little too much of her,--it is as if the wily +enchantress had cast her glamour upon the author himself,--and there is +too much anxiety that the nature of her intrigue with Carter shall not +be misunderstood. Nevertheless, she bears that stamp of verity which +marks all Mr. De Forrest's creations, and which commends to our +forbearance rather more of the highly colored and strongly-flavored +parlance of the camps than could otherwise have demanded reproduction in +literature. The bold strokes with which such an amusing and heroic +reprobate as Van Zandt and such a pitiful poltroon as Gazaway are +painted, are no less admirable than the nice touches which portray the +Governor of Barataria, and some phases of the aristocratic, +conscientious, truthful, angular, professorial society of New Boston, +with its young college beaux and old college belles, and its life pure, +colorless, and cold to the eye as celery, yet full of rich and wholesome +juices. It is the goodness of New Boston, and of New England, which, +however unbeautiful, has elevated and saved our whole national +character; and in his book there is sufficient evidence of our author's +appreciation of this fact, as well as of sympathy only and always with +what is brave and true in life. + + +_A Journey to Ashango-Land: and further Penetration into Equatorial +Africa._ By PAUL B. DU CHAILLU. With Maps and Illustrations. New York: +D. Appleton & Co. + +Somewhere in the heart of the African continent, Mr. Du Chaillu, laying +his head upon a rock, after a day of uncommon hardship, finds reason to +lament the ungratefulness of the traveller's fate, which brings him, +through perilous adventure and great suffering, to the incredulity and +coldness of a public unable to receive his story with perfect faith. It +is such a meditation as ought to reproach very keenly the sceptics who +doubted Mr. Du Chaillu's first book; it certainly renews in the reader +of the present work the satisfaction felt in the comparative +reasonableness of the things narrated, and his consequent ability to put +an unmurmuring trust in the author. Here, indeed, is very little of the +gorilla whom we formerly knew: his ferocity is greatly abated; he only +once beats his breast and roars; he does not twist gun-barrels; his +domestic habits are much simplified; his appearance here is relatively +as unimportant as Mr. Pendennis's in the "Newcomes"; he is a deposed +hero; and Mr. Du Chaillu pushes on to Ashango-Land without him. +Otherwise, moreover, the narrative is quite credible, and, so far, +unattractive, though there is still enough of incident to hold the idle, +and enough of information in the appendices concerning the +characteristics of the African skulls collected by Du Chaillu, the +geographical and astronomical observations made _en route_, and the +linguistic peculiarities noted, to interest the scientific. The book is +perhaps not a fortunate one for those who occupy a place between these +classes of readers, and who are tempted to ask of Mr. Du Chaillu, Have +you really four hundred and thirty-seven royal octavo pages of news to +tell us of Equatorial Africa? + +Our traveller landed in West Africa in the autumn of 1863, and, after a +short excursion in the coast country in search of the gorilla, he +ascended the Fernand Vaz in a steamer seventy miles, to Goumbi, whence +he proceeded by canoe to Obindji. Here, provided with a retinue of one +hundred men of the Commi nation, his overland journey began, and led +him through the hilly country of the Bakalai southeastwardly to the +village of Olenda. From this point, before continuing his route, he +visited the falls of the Samba Nagoshi, some fifty miles to the +northward, and Adingo Village, twenty miles below Olenda. Starting anew +after these excursions, he penetrated the continent, on a line +deflecting a little south of east, as far as Mouaou Kombo, which is +something more than two hundred miles from the sea. + +In first landing from his ship, Mr. Du Chaillu lost his astronomical +instruments, and was obliged to wait in the coast country until a new +supply could be obtained from England. Midway on his journey to Mouaou +Kombo, his photographic apparatus was stolen, and the chemicals were, as +he supposes, swallowed by the robbers, to some of whom their dishonest +experiments in photography proved fatal. The traveller's means of +usefulness were limited to observation of the general character of the +country, some investigation of its vegetable and animal life, and study +of the customs of its human inhabitants,--in none of which does he +develop much variety or novelty. + +Nearly the whole route lay through hilly or mountainous country, for the +most part thickly wooded and sparsely peopled. There was a very notable +absence of all the larger African animals, and those encountered seemed +to be as peaceful in their characters as their neighbors, the tribes of +wild men. The nations through which Du Chaillu passed after leaving the +Commi were the Ashira, the Ishogo, the Apono, and the Ashango, and none +appears to have differed greatly from the others except in name. In +habits they are all extremely alike, uniting a primitive simplicity of +costume and architecture to highly sophisticated traits of lying and +stealing. They are not warlike, and not very cruel, except in cases of +witchcraft, which are extremely dealt with,--as, indeed, they used to be +in New England. Fetichism is the only religion of these tribes, and they +seem to believe firmly in no superior powers but those of evil. They are +docile, however, and susceptible of control. Du Chaillu had the +misfortune to spread the small-pox among them from some infected members +of his train; and although all their superstitious fears were excited +against him, the people were held in check by their principal men; and +Du Chaillu met with no serious molestation until he reached Mouaou +Kombo. Here he found the inhabitants comparatively hostile and +distrustful, and in firing off a salute,--with the double purpose of +intimidating them and restoring them to confidence,--one of his retinue +accidentally shot two of the villagers. All hopes of friendly +intercourse and of further progress were now at an end, and Du Chaillu +began a rapid retreat, his men casting away in their flight his +photographs, journals, and note-books, and hopelessly impairing the +value of the possible narrative which he might survive to write. + +Such narrative as he has actually written, we have briefly sketched. Its +fault is want of condensation and of graphic power, so that, although +you must follow the traveller through his difficulties and dangers, it +is quite as much by effort of sympathy as by reason of interest that you +do so. For the paucity of result from all the labor and hardship +undergone, the author--considering the losses of material he +sustained--cannot be justly criticised; but certainly the bulk of his +volume makes its meagre substance somewhat too apparent. + + +_Liffith Lank, or Lunacy._ By C. H. WEBB. New York: Carleton. + +_St. Twel'mo, or the Cuneiform Cyclopedist of Chattanooga._ By C. H. +WEBB. New York: C. H. Webb. + +In the first of these clever and successful burlesques, Mr. Webb has +travestied rather the ideas than the manner of Mr. Reade; and one who +turned to "Liffith Lank" from the wonderful parodies in "Punch's Prize +Novelists," or those exquisitely finished pieces of mimicry, the +"Condensed Novelists" of the Californian Harte, would feel its want of +fidelity to the method and style of the author burlesqued. Yet the +essential absurdities of "Griffith Gaunt" are most amusingly brought out +in "Liffith Lank"; and as the little work makes the reader laugh at the +great one, he has no right, perhaps, to ask more of it, or to complain +that it trusts too much to the facile pun for its effects, which are +oftener broad than poignant. + +Nevertheless, in spite of our logical content with "Liffith Lank," we +are very glad to find "St. Twel'mo" much better, and we only doubt +whether the game is worth the candle; but as the candle is Mr. Webb's, +he can burn it, we suppose, upon whatever occasion he likes. He has here +made a closer parody than in his first effort, and has lost nothing of +the peculiar power with which he there satirized ideas. That quality of +the Bronte sisters, of which Miss Evans of Mobile is one of the many +American dilutions,--that quality by which any sort of masculine +wickedness and brutality short of refusing ladies seats in horse-cars is +made lovely and attractive to the well-read and well-bred of the +sex,--is very pleasantly derided, while the tropical luxuriance of +general information characteristic of "St. Elmo" is unsparingly +ridiculed, with the help of frequent extracts from the novel itself. + +Mr. Webb appears in "St. Twel'mo" as both publisher and author, and, +with a good feeling significant of very great changes in the literary +world since a poet toasted Napoleon because he hanged a bookseller, +dedicates his little work "To his best friend and nearest relative, the +publisher." + + +_The Literary Life of James K. Paulding._ Compiled by his Son, WILLIAM +I. PAULDING. New York: Charles Scribner and Company. + +James K. Paulding was born in 1778 at Great-Nine Partners, in Dutchess +County, New York, and nineteen years later came to the city of New York +to fill a clerkship in a public office. His family was related to that +of Washington Irving by marriage; he was himself united to Irving by +literary sympathy and ambition, and the two young men now formed a +friendship which endured through life. They published the Salmagundi +papers together, and they always corresponded; but with Irving +literature became all in all, and with Paulding a favorite relaxation +from political life and a merely collateral pursuit. He wrote partisan +satires and philippics, waxing ever more bitter against the party to +which Irving belonged, and against England, where Irving was tasting the +sweets of appreciation and success. He came to be Navy Agent at New York +in 1823, and in 1838 President Van Buren made him his Secretary of the +Navy. Three years later he retired from public life, and spent his +remaining days in the tranquil and uneventful indulgence of his literary +tastes. + +Dying in 1859, he had survived nearly all his readers, and the present +memoir was required to remind many, and to inform more, of the existence +of such works as "The Backwoodsman," a poem; the Salmagundi papers in a +second series; "Koningsmarke, the Long Finne, a story of the New World," +in two volumes; "The Merry Tales of the Three Wise Men of Gotham," +satirizing Owen's theories of society, law, and science; "The New Mirror +for Travellers, and Guide to the Springs," a satire of fashionable life +in the days before ladies with seventy-five trunks were born; "Tales of +the Good Woman," a collection of short stories; "A Life of Washington"; +"American Comedies"; "The Old Continental," and "The Puritan and his +Daughter," historical novels; and innumerable political papers of a +serious or a satirical sort. As it has been the purpose of the author of +this memoir to let Paulding's life in great part develop itself from his +letters, so it has also been his plan to spare comment on his father's +literary labors, and to allow their character to be estimated by +extracts from his poems, romances, and satires. From these we gather the +idea of greater quantity than quality; of a poetical taste rather than +poetic faculty; of a whimsical rather than a humorous or witty man. +There is a very marked resemblance to Washington Irving's manner in the +prose, which is inevitably, of course, less polished than that of the +more purely literary man, and which is apt to be insipid and strained in +greater degree in the same direction. It would not be just to say that +Paulding's style was formed upon that of Irving; but both had given +their days and nights to the virtuous poverty of the essayists of the +last century; and while one grew into something fresher and more +original by dint of long and constant literary effort, the other, +writing only occasionally, remained an old-fashioned mannerist to the +last. When he died, he passed out of a world in which Macaulay, Dickens, +Thackeray, and Hawthorne had never lived. The last delicacy of touch is +wanting in all his work, whether verse or prose; yet the reader, though +unsatisfied, does not turn from it without respect. If it is +second-rate, it is not tricksy; its dulness is not antic, but decorous +and quiet; its dignity, while it bores, enforces a sort of reverence +which we do not pay to the ineffectual fire-works of our own more +pyrotechnic literary time. + +Of Paulding himself one thinks, after reading the present memoir, with +much regard and some regret. He was a sturdy patriot and cordial +democrat, but he seems not to have thought human slavery so very bad a +thing. He is perceptibly opinionated, and would have carried things with +a high hand, whether as one of the government or one of the governed. He +was not swift to adopt new ideas, but he was thoroughly honest in his +opposition to them. His somewhat exaggerated estimate of his own +importance in the world of letters and of politics was one of those +venial errors which time readily repairs. + + +_History and General Description of New France._ By the Rev. P. F. X. DE +CHARLEVOIX, S. J. Translated, with Notes, by JOHN GILMARY SHEA. New +York: J. G. Shea. Vol. I. + +Charlevoix's "History of New France" is very well known to all who study +American history in its sources. It is a well-written, scholarlike, and +readable book, treating of a subject which the author perfectly +understood, and of which he may be said to have been a part. Tried by +the measure of his times, his research was thorough and tolerably exact. +The work, in short, has always been justly regarded as a "standard," and +very few later writers have thought it necessary to go beyond or behind +it. Appended to it is a journal of the author's travels in America, in +the form of a series of letters to the Duchesse de Lesdiguieres, full of +interest, and a storehouse of trustworthy information. + +Charlevoix had been largely quoted and extensively read. Not to know +him, indeed, was to be ignorant of some of the most memorable passages +in the history of this continent; but, what is certainly remarkable, he +had never found an English translator. At the time of the Old French +War, when the public curiosity was strongly interested in everything +relating to America, the journal appended to the history was "done into +English" and eagerly read; but the history itself had remained to this +time in the language in which it was originally written. This is not to +be regretted, if it has been the occasion of giving us the truly +admirable work which is the subject of this notice. + +The spirit and the manner in which Mr. Shea has entered upon his task +are above all praise. It is with him a "labor of love." In these days of +literary "jobs," when bad translating and careless editing are palmed +off upon the amateurs of choice books in all the finery of broad margins +and faultless typography, it is refreshing to meet with a book of which +the mechanical excellence is fully equalled by the substantial value of +its contents, and by the thorough, conscientious, and scholarlike +character of the literary execution. The labor and the knowledge +bestowed on this translation would have sufficed to produce an original +history of high merit. Charlevoix rarely gives his authorities. Mr. Shea +has more than supplied this deficiency. Not only has he traced out the +sources of his author's statements and exhibited them in notes, but he +has had recourse to sources of which Charlevoix knew nothing. He is thus +enabled to substantiate, correct, or amplify the original narrative. He +translates it, indeed, with literal precision, but, in his copious notes +he sheds such a flood of new light upon it that this translation is of +far more value to the student than the original work. Since Charlevoix's +time, many documents, unknown to him, though bearing on his subject, +have been discovered, and Mr. Shea has diligently availed himself of +them. The tastes and studies of many years have made him familiar with +this field of research, and prepared him to accomplish an undertaking +which would otherwise have been impracticable. + +The first volume is illustrated by facsimiles of Charlevoix's maps, +together with his portrait and those of Cartier and Menendez. It forms a +large octavo of about three hundred pages, and as a specimen of the +typographical art is scarcely to be surpassed. We learn that the second +volume is about to appear. + + +_The Comparative Geography of Palestine, and the Sinaitic Peninsula._ By +CARL RITTER. Translated and adapted to the use of Biblical Students by +WILLIAM L. GAGE. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1866. 4 vols. + +American critics have found fault with Mr. Gage, as it seems to us +somewhat too strongly, for certain features of this work. He has been +blamed for adapting it "to the use of Biblical students," as though +thereby he must necessarily tamper with scientific accuracy of +statement,--for too much condensation, and for too little,--for omitting +Ritter's maps,--and for certain incongruities of figures and +measurement. It has also been said, that the book itself, being fifteen +years old, is already antiquated, and that many recent works, not +mentioned by Ritter, or at least not adequately used, have modified our +knowledge of Palestine since his day. But, after all, these critics have +ended by saying that the work is a good and useful one, and by awarding +credit to Mr. Gage for his fidelity, industry, and accuracy in his part +of the work. So that, perhaps, the fault-finding was thrown in only as a +necessary part of the duty of the reviewer; for fault-finding is, _ex +officio_, his expected function. A judge ought always to be seated above +the criminal, and every author before his reviewer is only a culprit. +The author may have given years to the study of the subject to which his +reviewer has only given hours. But what of that? The position of the +reviewer is to look down, and his tone must always be _de haut en bas_. + +We do not, ourselves, profess to know as much of the geography of +Palestine as Professor Ritter, probably not as much as Mr. Gage. Were it +not for the sharp-eyed critics, we should have wholly missed the +important verification of the surface-level of Lake Huleh. We have in +past years studied our "Palaestina," by Von Raumer, and followed the +careful Dr. Robinson with gratitude through his laborious researches. +But we must confess that we are grateful for these volumes, even though +they have no maps, and cannot but think it honorable in Mr. Gage to +prefer to publish the book with none, rather than with poor ones. We see +no harm in adapting the work to the use of Biblical students, by +abridging of omitting the topics which have no bearing on the Bible +history. No one else is obliged to purchase it, and the warning is given +beforehand. + +These four volumes contain a vast amount of interesting and important +matter concerning Sinai and Palestine. The journals of travellers of all +times are laid under contribution, and you are allowed often to form +your own judgments from the primitive narratives. You are like one +sitting in a court and hearing a host of witnesses examined and +cross-examined by able counsel, and then listening to the summing up of +a learned judge. It is easy to see how much more vivid such descriptions +must be than a dry _resume_ without these accompanying _pieces +justificatifs_. + +The first of the four volumes concerns the peninsula of Mount Sinai. It +gives the history of all the travels in that region, and the chief works +concerning it from the earliest time; the routes to Mount Sinai; the +voyages of Hiram and Solomon through the Red Sea to India; an +interesting discussion of the name Ophir; the different groups of +mountains in this region; the Bedouin tribes of the peninsula, and of +Arabia Petraea; and a full account of Petra, the monolithic city of Edom. + +The second volume begins with a comparative view of Syria, and a review +of the authorities on the geography of Palestine. Then follows an +account of the Land of Canaan and its inhabitants before the conquest by +the Israelites, and of the tribes outside of Palestine who remained +hostile to the Israelites. We next have an account of the great +depression of the Jordan Valley, the river and its basin. Chapters on +the sources of the Jordan, the Sea of Galilee, the caravan road to +Damascus, and the river to the Dead Sea, and an account of the +travellers who have surveyed the region, follow,--with an Appendix, in +which is contained a discussion of the site of Capernaum, and Tobler's +full list of works on Palestine. + +Vol. III. contains chapters on the Mouth of the Jordan; the Dead Sea; +the Division among the Ten Tribes; an account of Judaea, Samaria, and +Galilee; the routes through the Land; and several scientific essays. + +Vol. IV. gives a full account of Jerusalem, ancient, mediaeval, and +modern; a discussion of the holy places; an account of the inhabitants; +the region around Jerusalem; the roads to and from the city; Samaria; +and Galilee;--concluding with an index of subjects, and another of +texts. + +On the whole, we must express our gratitude to Mr. Gage for his labor of +love, in thus giving us the results of the studies of his friend and +master on this important theme. Students of the Bible and of Syrian +geography can nowhere else find the matters treated so fully and +conscientiously and exhaustively discussed as here. + +As the principal objection made to the translation of Mr. Gage is that +it omits Ritter's maps, it is proper to state that Professor Kiepert +declared them to be worthless; that the publisher declined an offer to +sell five hundred sets, lying on his hands, to the Clarks of Edinburgh, +because he could not conscientiously recommend them. Inasmuch as good +Bible maps of Palestine are to be had everywhere, and as Robinson's are +sold by themselves in a little volume, the student does not seem to +have much reason to complain. + +The past quarter of a century has not added much to our knowledge of +Palestine. Stanley, Bonor, Stewart, Lynch, Tobler, Barclay, De Saulcy, +Sepp, Tristam, Porter, Wetystein, the Duc de Luyner, and others, have +travelled and written, but the mysteries remain mysteries still. + + +_Memoirs and Correspondence of Madame Recamier._ Translated from the +French and edited by ISAPHENE M. LUYSTER. Fourth Edition. Boston: +Roberts Brothers. + +In an article contributed a year or two since to these pages, Miss +Luyster sketched the career of the beautiful and good woman whose +history is minutely recounted in the volume before us. It is a +fascinating history, for Madame Recamier was altogether as anomalous as +any creation of French fiction. Her marriage was such only in name; she +lived pure, and with unblemished repute, in the most vicious and +scandalous times; she inspired friendship by coquetry; her heart was +never touched, though full of womanly tenderness; a leader of society +and of fashion, she never ceased to be timid and diffident; she ruled +witty and intellectual circles by the charm of the most unepigrammatic +sweetness, the merest good-heartedness. + +The correspondence of Madame Recamier consists almost entirely of +letters written to her; for this adored friend of literary men wrote +seldom herself, and at her death even caused to be destroyed the greater +part of the few notes she had made toward an autobiography. In the +present Memoirs Madame Lenormant chiefly relies upon her own personal +knowledge of Madame Recamier's life, and upon contemporary hearsay. It +is a very interesting book, as we have it, though at times provokingly +unsatisfactory, and at times inflated and silly in style. It is not only +a history of Madame Recamier, but a sketch of French society, politics, +and literature during very long and interesting periods. + +Miss Luyster has faithfully performed the ever-thankless task of +translation; and, in preparing Madame Lenormant's work for the American +public, has somewhat restrained the author's tendency to confusion and +diffusion. Here and there, as editor, she has added slight but useful +notes, and has accompanied the Memoirs with a very pleasantly written +introduction, giving a skilful and independent analysis of Madame +Recamier's character. + + +_Old England: its Scenery, Art, and People._ By JAMES M. HOPPIN, +Professor in Yale College. New York; Hurd and Houghton. + +"The 'Pavilion,' with its puerile domes and minarets, recalls the false +and flimsy epoch of that semi-Oriental monarch, George IV. His statue by +Chantrey stands upon a promenade called the 'Old Steine.' The house of +Mrs. Thrale, where Doctor Johnson visited, is still standing. The +atmosphere of Brighton is considered to be favorable for invalids in the +winter-time, as well as the summer." + +In this haphazard way many of the various objects of interest in Old +England are introduced to his reader by a New England writer, who +possibly mistakes the disorder of a note-book for literary ease, or who +possibly has little of the method of picturesqueness in him. In either +case his reader returns from Old England with the impression that his +travelling-companion is a sensible, honest observer, who, in forming a +book out of very good material, has often builded, not better, but +worse, than he knew. There is no want of graphic touches; there is +enough of fine and poetic feeling; but there is no perspective, no +atmosphere: much of Old England through this book affects one somewhat +as a faithful Chinese drawing of the moon might. + +At other times Mr. Hoppin's treatment of his subject is sufficiently +artistic, and he has seen some places and persons not worn quite +threadbare by travel. He did not pay the national visit to Mr. Tennyson, +although he had a letter of introduction; and of those people whose +hospitality he did enjoy, he writes with great discretion and good +taste. His sketch of the High Church clergyman at Land's End is a case +in point, and it has an interest to Americans for the light it throws +upon the present conflict of religious thought in England. + +Mr. Hoppin writes best of the less frequented parts of England,--of +Land's End, and of Cornwall and Penzance; but he writes no more +particularly of them than of the suburbs of London. The chapter on +London art and the London pulpit is a curious _melange_ of shrewd, +original thoughts about pictures and of acceptations of critical +authority, of sectarian belief and of worldly toleration, together with +a certain immaturity of literary judgment and a characteristic tendency +to incoherence. "Turner," he says, "did a great work, if it were only to +have been the occasion of Ruskin's marvellous eloquence"; and of Dr. +Cumming he writes, as if transcribing literally from his note-book: "His +voice is rich, and mellow without being powerful. He is a tall man, with +high, white forehead and white hair. It was difficult to find a seat, +even upon the pulpit stairs. Dr. Cumming, as a graceful, yet not +effeminate preacher, has good claims to his celebrity." + +It remains for us to praise the author's conscientious effort at all +times to convey information, and his success in this effort. He has +doubtless seen everything that is worth seeing in the country he has +passed over; and if we cannot accept the whole of his book as +literature, we have still the impression that we should find it one of +the best and thoroughest of hand-books for travel in Old England. + + +_Hymns._ By HARRIET MCEWEN KIMBALL, Boston: E. P. Dutton and Company. + +Religious emotion has asked very little of literary art; and if we are +to let hymnology witness, it has received as little as it has asked in +times past. To call upon Christ's name, to bless God for goodness and +mercy, suffice it; and no form of words enabling it to do this seems to +be found too feeble, or affected, or grotesque. For anything more, the +inarticulate tones of music are as adequate to devotion as the sublimest +formula that Milton or Dante could have shaped. It is only since +religion has been so much philosophized, and has in so great degree +ceased to be a passion, that we have begun to find the hymns which our +forefathers sang with rapturous unconsciousness rather rubbishy +literature. How blank, and void of all inspiration, they seem for the +most part to be! Good men wrote them, but evidently in seasons of great +mental depression. How commonplace is the language, how strained are the +fancies, how weak the thoughts! Yet through these stops of lead and +wood, the music of charity, love, repentance, aspiration, has poured +from millions of humble hearts in sweetness that blessed and praised. + +With no thought probably of affecting the standard hymnnology were the +hymns written in the little book before us. They are characterized by +poetic purity of diction as well as tenderness of sentiment. They +express, without freshness of intuition, the emotions and desires of a +devoutly religious nature; and they commend themselves, like some of the +best and earliest Christian hymns, by their realization of the Divine +essence as something to be directly approached with filial and personal +affection. Here is no burst of fervid devotion, but rather a quiet love, +breathing contrition, faith, and praise in poems of gentle earnestness, +which even the reader not imbued with the element of their inspiration +may find graceful and pleasing. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 20, No. +117, July, 1867., by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY *** + +***** This file should be named 18914.txt or 18914.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/9/1/18914/ + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by Cornell University Digital Collections) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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